More Berlin - 12.12.12

We took a taxi over to the intercontinental hotel for the exciting conclusion of the winter simulation conference.  I actually got to talk to a few people who passed by.  After we had taken down the booth, we had the rest of the day to see Berlin.  We changed clothes and went straight for the Pergamonmuseum.  I think it was the coolest museum I've ever seen, and that includes the British Museum.
They had all the freezes from the Altar of Pergamo.  The Byzantines had used the stone from the old Hellenistic temple to help build the walls around the city.  In the 1800's they were using the marble from the walls to make lye, so the Germans took all of the sculptures that had been hidden in the walls to Berlin to put in the museum.

Pergamo was one of the seven cities that John wrote to in the Book of Revelation, but that wasn't the most impressive thing in the museum.  I also saw the Ishtar Gate reconstructed from original bricks from the gates King Nebuchadnezzar built around Babylon.

The most ornate stonework was in the market gate, which had been destroyed by an earthquake.  Some people wanted to use only traditional techniques when reconstructing the gate in the museum, but those techniques had failed once before, so they put an iron frame to reinforce it.

There was also an amazing Islamic art display.  You'll have to go to Berlin.  We took some time to walk around the city and see the Brandenburg Gate again, but now I want to go to bed early.