Great news from Pergamon

The unique site of Pergamon has just been added to the World Heritage List of the UNESCO.

So many sites are still pending acceptance, others are being accepted and Pergamon certainly deserves its place. As told in my previous article Pergamon is simply huge, the city was the capital of the Hellenistic Attalids and the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It was a key city in the ancient world and the proud owner of an Asclepion where sick people were treated in what we can label as modern ways.

It is very unfortunate that cities on UNESCO’s World Heritage List cannot be better protected during conflicts or in wartime. It saddens me deeply when scrolling down this list (click here) that so many sites are in danger (the red dots) in countries like Afghanistan (the Minaret of Djam and the Bamiyan Valley), Georgia, Iraq (Ashur on the Tigris and the Samarra site), Israel with the old city walls of Jerusalem, Serbia (medieval Kosovo), and maybe most of all Syria including old Damascus, old Bosra, the beautiful city of Palmyra, old Aleppo, the Crac des Chevaliers, and the so-called Dead Cities.