Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Antikensammlung (Collection of Antiquities) presents artworks from ancient Greece
and Rome here and at the Altes Museum. Since the Pergamon Altar is currently closed to
the public, the main sight is now the 2nd-century AD
Market Gate of Miletus
. Merchants
and customers once flooded through the splendid 17m-high gate into the bustling market
square of this wealthy Roman trading town in modern-day Turkey. A strong earthquake lev-
elled much of the town in the early Middle Ages, but German archaeologists dug up the site
between 1903 and 1905 and managed to put the puzzle back together. The richly decorated
marble gate blends Greek and Roman design features and is the world's single largest monu-
ment ever to be reassembled in a museum.
Also from Miletus is a beautifully restored
floor mosaic
starring Orpheus, a gifted musi-
cian from ancient Greek mythology whose lyre-playing charmed even the beasts surround-
ing him. It originally graced the dining room of a 2nd-century Roman villa.
Vorderasiatisches Museum
Step through the Gate of Miletus and travel back 800 years to yet another culture and civil-
isation: Babylon during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC). You're now in
the Museum of the Ancient Near East, where it's impossible not to be awed by the magnifi-
cence of the
Ishtar Gate
, the
Processional Way
leading to it and the facade of the
king's
throne hall
. All are sheathed in radiant blue glazed bricks and adorned with ochre reliefs of
strutting lions, bulls and dragons representing Babylonian gods. They're so striking, you can
almost imagine hearing the roaring and fanfare as the procession rolled into town.
Other treasures from the collection include the colossal statue of the weather god Hadad
(775 BC; room 2) from Syria and the nearly 5000-year-old cone mosaic temple facade from
Uruk (room 5).
Museum für Islamische Kunst
Top billing in the Museum of Islamic Art upstairs belongs to the facade from the
caliph's
palace of Mshatta
(8th century; room 9) in today's Jordan, which was a gift to Kaiser Wil-
helm II from Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II. A masterpiece of early Islamic art, it depicts
animals and mythical creatures frolicking peacefully amid a riot of floral motifs in an allu-
sion to the Garden of Eden.
Other rooms feature fabulous ceramics, carvings, glasses and other artistic objects as well
as the brightly turquoise 11th-century
prayer niche
from a mosque in Konya, Turkey and
an intricately patterned cedar-and-poplar
ceiling dome
from the Alhambra in Spain's
Granada.
