Asclepieion of Pergamon

One of antiquity's foremost healing centres, rivalling Epidaurus and Kos, located 3 km southwest of the Pergamon acropolis in modern Bergama, Turkey. Founded in the 4th century BC, the complex featured a circular treatment centre with six apses, a 3,500-seat theatre, sacred spring, and underground passage. Patients received mud baths, massage, herbal treatments, and dream incubation therapy. The physician Galen, born in Pergamon in 129 AD, began his medical studies here at age 16. A colonnaded Via Tecta stretching 820 m led pilgrims to the sanctuary.