Guide
The building at Bergama known to local people as Kızılavlu — the red courtyard — is a basilica built by Hadrian in the second century AD, also called the temple of Serapis or the Serapeion. It got its popular name from being built entirely of brick and from its very large forecourt.
It stands in the middle of the lower Roman city: the population of Pergamon grew quickly under Rome and the city spread west into the Bakırçay plain. The sanctuary was probably dedicated to the Egyptian gods Serapis, Isis and Harpokrates, a sign of the interest taken in Egyptian culture, and that grouping of gods is expressed architecturally in a threefold arrangement — the main temple with its towers.
The forecourt sits on water tunnels laid over the Selinos stream. The huge entrance door is framed in heavy marble jambs and was probably faced with bronze.
The lighting was designed rather than accidental. Only the front of the sanctuary was lit by windows; the rear section, where the cult statue stood, was left without them so that it would remain half-lit. At the back are two high bases and a platform for that statue. Symmetrical towers flank the main temple, with galleried courtyards before them and, in the middle of each, two basins serving purification and worship.
