Pergamon Altar
A 2nd-century BC altar that made three ancient lists of the Seven Wonders, excavated from a Turkish hilltop and reassembled inside a Berlin museum.
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Eumenes II built this 35-metre-wide structure on the acropolis of Pergamon in what is now Turkey. German engineer Carl Humann began excavations in 1878; the relief panels ended up in Berlin. You can stand at the foot of a stairway nearly 20 metres wide and read two separate marble friezes that were carved over two thousand years ago.
What to look for
- The Gigantomachy frieze running along the base in high relief — a continuous battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods
- The front stairway itself, almost 20 metres wide, built to make the approach feel monumental
- The inner court Telephus frieze, smaller and less well-preserved, tracing the life of Telephus — son of Heracles and legendary founder of Pergamon
The altar is inside the Pergamon Museum on Berlin's Museum Island.
Pergamon Altar is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Berlin, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Berlin pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Berlin
- Berlin WallBuilt to keep citizens in, not enemies out — and the death strip of anti-vehicle trenches and beds of nails makes that intent impossible to misread.
- Brandenburg GateFor 28 years a wall sealed it shut — now you walk straight through.
- ReichstagA fire in 1933, a battle in 1945, a dome in 1999 — you walk inside Germany's working parliament.
- Berlin Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion)Designed for the 1936 Olympics and still hosting European finals — the bowl has barely left the world stage.
- Pergamon MuseumThe Pergamon Altar and the collections of the Vorderasiatisches Museum once filled this hall — closed since 2023, with the North Wing returning in 2027.
- Fernsehturm BerlinA 368-metre Cold War statement that outlived the government that built it — and now stands for the city that absorbed it.