Berlin Day 2

September 7, 2017

Museum Day! Which means Museum Island in Berlin . . . and my number one choice: the Pergamon Museum. Having visited Turkey in 2014 and the sights at Pergamon and Ephesus, I wanted to see the ruins that the Germans had removed in the early 1900s. So off I went . . .

Another view of the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral Church).

The Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery).

But my goal was the Pergamon Museum . . . since I had been to Pergamon in Turkey already . . . and all the best stuff was here!

Here is the reconstructed Ishtar Gate of Babylon, built during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 604–562 BC. That alone was worth the visit.

A market building from Pergamon; on the floor in front of it is a mosaic from the same site.

And on the opposite wall, the Market Gate of Miletus.

The Processional Way, which led to the Ishtar Gate. This is, at best, only a suggestion of what it must have felt like!

The Sam'al lions, three are original and one is a plaster cast. They date to the 10th and 8th centuries BC.

An Assyrian lamassu or winged bull. So cool. This one has five legs, so it looks to be standing when viewed from the front but walking when viewed from the side.

Islamic mihrab (prayer niche), originally from Konya, Turkey.

Another mihrab, 15th century, from Damascus.

The façade from the palace of Qasr Mshatta, an Umayyad winter palace originally located just south of Amman, Jordan.

The Aleppo Room, which dates to the 17th century, makes up the oldest collection from a Syrian dwelling house from the Ottoman period.

My only disappointment? Due to renovation work, the hall containing one of the museum's most prominent exhibits, the Pergamon Altar, which I definitely wanted to see, was closed. Another trip will be required! It was already 1:00 PM, time to wander some more. I did lots of walking today.

Checkpoint Charlie, which is a bit overhyped . . . but I was in the neighborhood. The original checkpoint structure was removed in 1990.

One very interesting exhibit is the Topography of Terror, which is located on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters. It's a lot of reading, and much of it is located outdoors.

But, as you can see, very popular. It thoroughly documents the rise of Nazism and the horrors associated with that movement. There is an interior space as well, where I went to warm up a bit. Berlin can be chilly in September (note how most of these people are dressed!).

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