Alrighty so I today I just visited my new favorite museum, its called the Pergamon museum, and it is located on Museum Island, one of Berlin's most infamous sights. The museum was about 10 dollars to get into so I had really high hopes and I'm happy to say that I was not in the least amount let down, and this was in spite of the fact that the main exhibit was actually closed to the pubic due to renovations.
So a little bit of background, this museum is named after its most popular attraction, the altar of Pergamon. This was the main entrance to a kingdom known as Pergamon which existed long ago in what is now the region around Istanbul. As mentioned earlier though this one part of the museum was closed and I was upset to hear about that but nevertheless you can still see pictures of it online and the rest of the museum was still amazing. The Ishtar gate is actually housed here as well, a huge facade of blue stained bricks which make the entryway into the ancient city of Ishtar. Throughout the rest of the museum you can find interesting articles from throughout history from the Middle East. There was also a very interesting section on the ancient use and training of elephants, as well as an expansive display of old Islamic works.
My absolute favorite part had to be the Pergamon Panorama though. This is the largest panorama in the world and is actually about a 5-minute walk from the museum, this is because it is its own free standing building. The building was specifically designed in the shape of a gigantic silo to give a 360 degree panoramic view of Pergamon, and what it would have been like when it was thriving with life. This was just absolutely amazing, it had to have been 100 feet tall, about 60-70 feet in diameter inside and in the direct middle a 4 story tower you can climb up to view the monumental picture at multiple heights. The lighting cycled about every 10 minutes and there was also sounds to go along with the time of day, it showed people in the marketplace, around the palace of Pergamon, and the awe-inspiring landscape of the forests beyond the city.
This was by far my favorite thing that I have seen here so far and I would highly suggest anyone who comes to Berlin put this in their top 5 list of places to visit. As always thank you for reading!
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