Bergama sends nomination proposal for world heritage site listing

The town of Bergama in the Aegean province of Izmir has submitted a nomination proposal to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with the purpose of having the town be placed on the list of World Heritage sites. Turkey submitted a list of tentative sites to UNESCO in 2011, among which the town of Bergama was listed. Since then the town has worked hard to improve the condition of sites in order to ensure that all documents prepared for the nomination file show the town in its best condition, said Bergama Mayor Mehmet Gonenc. The 500-page proposal file contains hundreds of photos and maps about the history and culture of the town. The file review process will take more than a year, after which a committee from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) will visit Bergama to confirm the details submitted in the file. Bergama, which was a small settlement during the Archaic Period, attracts many tourists each year with its old Ottoman-style houses. The town, which is also known for its high-quality carpet weaving, dates back to the 11th century. The Theater of Pergamon, which was constructed in the third century B.C., is one of the steepest theaters in the world and has a capacity of 10,000. The Selcuk Minaret, the Cukurca Caravanserai, the Tashan Caravanserai, the Great Mosque of Bergama and the Sadirvanli Mosque are some of the outstanding buildings in Bergama. The Bergama library, ruins of palaces, ancient arsenals and the Temple of Serapis, built for the Egyptian gods in the second century A.D. are some of the other prominent sites in the town.