Jesus spoke in Matthew (Mt 5:4) of a city on a hill and today we saw probably the best example of a city on a hill in Pergamum. The Acropolis at Pergamum stands up on the top of hills at the back of the modern Turkish city of Bergama, towering some 450 metres over the city.
The views from the Acropolis are astounding, a 360 degree panorama stretching to the Kozak mountains several kilometres in the distance. Complete with a library, temple, theatre and agora it was the centre of the social and religious life of the city. Each of the structures on the Acropolis were a marvel of engineering and design, with the library having the shelves built a few inches way from the walls to allow ventilation to protect the papyrus stored on them.
The temple courtyard stood on top of a massive retaining wall over 40 metres in height, necessary in order to provide a flat area for the temple courtyard on the side of the steep drop down the sides of the hills. The theatre was the largest in Asia Minor, built into the steep drop with 80 rows of seats and a capacity of over 10,000. Huge water cisterns kept the Acropolis with a good supply of water, but it still had to be lugged up the hill by soldiers, which would have meant at least a two hour climb, let alone the trip across the plains from the Kozak mountains.
After Pergamum we moved on to Sardis, where the remains of the Temple of Artemis stood. Nearby was a huge two storey façade belonging to the gymnasium, baths and sporting complex. It seemed an impossibly large structure to be built without modern scaffolding and scissor lifts, let alone the lack of union labour. The city was also a leader in market matters as it was the first city to mint its own coinage in order to allow the economy to grow, under King Croesus (he of the immeasurable riches). It was in its time one of the wealthiest cities in Asia Minor, the capital of the Lydian kingdom which stood in the path of important trade routes and possessed minted coinage.
As well as mammon, Sardinians worshipped at one of the oldest remaining synagogues in Asia Minor dating back to second century AD. On the walls of the large marble building are mosaic masterpieces set out in intricate geometric patterns. Strikingly, one of the mosaics was a perfect representation of repeating three dimensional cubes which was many centuries later made famous by the 20th century mathematician and artist MC Escher in his etching "Tumbling Blocks".
As well as trekking around archaeological sites we have also gone through many a market place and honed our bartering skills. Of necessity we have had to improve so as to avoid paying 8 or 9 times the true monetary value of an item, though some of the more expensive prices that have been paid are yet truly valuable in sentimental terms. Most of the small vendors lining the entrances to each major tourist site hawk the same or indistinguishably similar wares, yet as no prices are marked there is limitless opportunities to identify a price. It helps to do some research first, going from store to store at one sight to identify the bottom line of prices; then, go to the next site, and repeat the process to get the price down further. Then, and only then, are you suitably armed with the information required to assign a realistic monetary value for the item. Armed with that information, you move onto the third tourist site and let loose.
If often assists to have a tag team system running, with one spare person moving between the shoppers periodically to walk up and say "25 lira for this? No way! I got this yesterday quoted at 15 lira, and that's too expensive". Cue to second friend who chimes in with "well, I wouldn't do it for anything more than 5 lira". Friend one then says to the vendor "I'll give you 5 lira for it", importantly, before the vendor has disclosed his starting price. By going in low and early the vendor loses the huge markups he would otherwise have had up his sleeve to play with. With such a tactic a scarf which with inexperience and lack of preparation was purchased by your trusty correspondent for the sum of 32 lira can easily be converted into a scarf of the same quality being purchased for 8 lira, as was achieved by some of my more shopping savvy buddies.
As time passes however I'm slowly beginning to learn how to deal with the incessant "hello my friend, I have good deal for you" or "good price for you my friend, today only, you come in and have cup of tea, no?" or "His store no good " I am best in all Turkey, you come see, no? " honestly, the best response is no response until you have made an assessment of what you think the item is worth, half it, take a bit more off, then put the offer. Expect the resultant tirade about having to make a living, feed a family and put many family members through complex and costly surgery, calmly add back the little bit you took off and put that. Expect a second, less strong, tirade. Dig your heels in, even over a low amount. When the third tirade comes, say sorry, too high, and walk away. As you turn to leave the price will drop substantially, and you can then enter into a sensible debate on price, and come out pretty close to the original figure you had in your head.
We visited a carpet making place where our newly gained bargaining skills would be sorely put to the test. It is a painstaking process, with massive looms several feet high and a few feet wide, securing hundreds of cotton or silk threads between which double knots would be hand tied. A twelve by seven rug in silk can take up to five years to complete by hand, and a wool on cotton rug in a three by five can take a relatively short 6 to 8 months. After a short lesson on how to compare carpets on the basis of the number of knots per square inch and the materials and dyes used we were expert carpet assessors, so they let us loose. "No obligation" they cry, "No pressure" they swear. Yes, well… Those of us who were there will beg to differ! Most of us got out unscathed, but there was one victim who purchased a beautiful three by five angora wool on cotton for AUD 1,700 " but that had come down from over 3,000 euros. That's likely to be either a true bargain, reached after some skilful haggling, or, it will go down as the biggest rip-off of the tour!
Kathryn Roach is part of a group of Moore College students investigating Turkey under the tutelage of Dr Paul Barnett
