Photograph unavailable
Pergamon and Ctesibius
Reading the place
Not one monument, but a layered setting.
Pergamon's urban landscape and Ctesibius's mechanical inventions belong to distinct histories. Vitruvius describes Ctesibius, associated with the water organ and force pump, as born in Alexandria.
İzmir · bergama
Place
[Pergamon](/en/place/bergama) is in [Bergama](/en/district/izmir/bergama). Ctesibius's birthplace was Alexandria in Egypt; Pergamon is not his birthplace or an identified workshop of his.
Time
Vitruvius's account links Ctesibius with pneumatic devices, water clocks and the water organ.
Community
Water-raising machinery and musical instruments reveal different uses of controlled air and water in ancient mechanics.
Today
Explore Pergamon as an ancient city, while reading Ctesibius's inventions through the separate Alexandrian tradition.
Narratives that include this place
Periods
- Hellenistic era
- Roman era
- Ottoman era
- National Struggle & Republic
- The Aegean today