Almost a century ago, the "Great Harlot of the Apocalypse" occultist Leah Hirag stood at its foot. On a mission from her lover Aleister Crowley, she whispered the words of an ancient spell. The purpose of the secret ceremony was to "release the vibes of the ancient natural gods" …
CLASH OF THE TITANS
Few of the tourists who have visited Berlin pass by the famous Pergamon Museum. Its main exhibit, the Pergamon Altar, is rightfully considered one of the wonders of the world. After all, this magnificent monument is the only thing that has survived from the kingdom of Pergamum, which disappeared forever from the face of the Earth.
In the III century BC. e. after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the great, the small kingdom of Pergamum, which lay in the west of modern Turkey, gained independence. The wealth of Pergamum was so great that the country rivaled Athens itself. In 228 BC. e. hordes of barbaric Gauls chose Pergamum as their next victim. Many states had already managed to submit to them, but the appetites of the conquerors grew by leaps and bounds. Pergamum seemed to them an easy and sure prey. However, the barbarians miscalculated: the Pergamon army was outnumbered, but superior in technical equipment. This played into the hands of the Pergamon people. In the battle at the headwaters of the Kaik River, the ruler of Pergamon, Attalus I, utterly defeated the Gauls, thus earning the nickname "savior" from his subjects.
In honor of the victory, Attalus ordered the construction of a sacrificial altar in the middle of the capital. The battle of the gods and giants, engraved in stone, was supposed to remind descendants of the battle of their fathers with the Gauls, on which the fate of their country once depended.
DUST OF AGES
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The altar was impressive. It was located on the southern slope of the mountain, from which there was a magnificent view of the lower city. The temple of the god of healing Asclepius, the sanctuary of the goddess Demeter, other religious buildings, the houses of the rich - everything was visible at a glance. The altar itself was a cult building - it was used for outdoor services.
The altar was raised on a high plinth, in the center of it cut through a wide marble staircase leading to the upper landing. Inside the colonnade there was a courtyard where the altar itself was located. On the outside, the walls were decorated with sculptural compositions depicting the battle of the gods and titans.
For a long time, the altar symbolized the power and greatness of ancient Pergamum, but, as the sage said, everything flows, everything changes. The kings of Pergamum became dependent on the Romans and fell prey to the divide and conquer policy. The last of the rulers of the kingdom, Aristonikus, ended his days deplorably - he was strangled in prison. The days of a great country were numbered. The Romans unceremoniously seized her wealth. The Roman emperor removed from Pergamum a library second only to that of Alexandria and presented thousands of scrolls to Queen Cleopatra. In the first centuries of our era, fanatical early Christians smashed the faces of ancient gods and giants, and the altar itself was nicknamed "the throne of Satan." So he stood defeated until 718, until the Arabs subjugated Asia Minor. In 1536 the ancient city of Pergamum fell completely. The once majestic structure turned into a heap of ruins and was buried under the dust of centuries. Only the legends that the Turks who inhabited these lands passed from mouth to mouth reminded of its existence.
SIXTH SENSE
In 1864, the Turkish government signed an agreement with a German firm to build a road from the small town of Bergamo to Izmir. Examining the site of future construction, engineer Karl Humann noticed a steep rocky hill with a height of more than three hundred meters on the eastern outskirts of the town. Climbing it, the engineer found the remains of the fortress wall. Archaeological excavations had never been carried out in this place, and some sixth sense told him that a lot of interesting things could be found here. He got into conversation with the Turks hired in the surrounding villages to build the road.
“This place is cursed, you can't dig here. White devils and red-headed devils live in grief. - they declared with one voice. - Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers also said that Allah severely punishes everyone who mines a stone here: people are speechless, their arms and legs are denied …
Humann suggested that a city could once have been here. History has not preserved any information about him, but he lives in folk tales. Karl turned to Berlin archaeologists for support - in vain. They did not believe in the existence of the ancient city. Only in 1878, things got off the ground: the director of the imperial museums, Alexander Konce, allocated money for archaeological work, and Humann received official permission from the Ottoman side. The first excavations began on September 9 and lasted a year.
TEARS OF HAPPINESS
“As we ascended, seven enormous eagles soared over the acropolis, foreshadowing happiness. They dug up and cleared the first slab. It was a mighty giant on serpentine writhing legs, his muscular back turned towards us, his head turned to the left, with a lion's skin on his left hand … They turn over another slab: the giant falls back on a rock, lightning pierced his thigh - I feel your closeness, Zeus!
I run frantically around all four plates. I see that the third is approaching the first: the serpentine ring of the large giant clearly passes to the slab with the giant falling to his knees … I positively tremble all over. Here's another piece - I scrape the ground with my nails - it's Zeus! The great and wonderful monument was presented to the world again, all our works are crowned …
Deeply shocked, we, three happy people, stood around the precious find until I sank onto the stove and relieved my soul with large tears of joy. This is how Karl Humann described the happy day that brought the first finds.
Everything found by agreement with the Ottoman side became the property of Germany. Loaded donkey carts moved to the coast, where ancient artifacts were loaded onto German ships and sent to Berlin.
FAVORITE OF NAZIS AND MAGES
The fate of the treasure in Germany was not easy. Either they could not finish building a museum for him, then he was subjected to a real invasion by German occultists and frankly satanic sects. The famous magicians Aleister Crowley and Samuel Mathers, the founder of the Golden Dawn magical order, were interested in the altar. At the altar, Leah Hiragh, known in occult circles as the "Whore in Purple," and Martha Künzel, a National Socialist who belonged to the Oriental Templar Order, performed secret rites. The Pergamon altar attracted the SS and their entourage like a magnet, for example, Karl Maria Willigut, a German pagan who seriously influenced the mystical moods of the Third Reich. The altar was admired by Richard Walter Darre and Himmler's favorite Helmut Dalkuen …
At the beginning of World War II, the Pergamon Museum was closed, the sculptural composition was covered with sandbags, and later dismantled and transported to the bunker. At the end of the war, at the initiative of Soviet academician Igor Grabar, the altar went to the Soviet Union as compensation for the loss of art objects suffered by the USSR during the war years. This is how the Pergamon treasure ended up in the Hermitage storerooms.
On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the victory over Nazism, Nikita Khrushchev made a broad gesture - he offered to return the ancient monument to Germany. In 1958, the bulk of the exhibits returned to the GDR. Since then, the altar has settled again in the homeland of Karl Humann. Is it forever? The Turkish government is increasingly declaring the return of the treasure to its "historical homeland". However, the chance for the Turks to get back the priceless masterpiece is still negligible.
Oksana VOLKOVA