Pergamon Museum

The Pergamon Museum (German: Pergamonmuseum) is situated on the Museum Island in Berlin. The site was designed by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann and was constructed in twenty years, from 1910 to 1930. The Pergamon houses original-sized, reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus, all consisting of parts transported from Turkey. There is controversy over the legitimacy of the acquisition of the collection. It was suggested that the collection should be returned to Turkey (original country of the excavations).

The museum is subdivided into the antiquity collection, the Middle East museum, and the museum of Islamic art. The museum is visited by approximately 1,135,000 people every year, making it the most visited art museum in Germany (2007).

Exhibition
Among the pieces the museum displays are:

• The Pergamon Altar
• Market Gate of Miletus
• The Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way, Babylon
• The Mshatta facade

Plans
The main plan for the Museum Island dictates an expansion of the Pergamon Museum, which will become the centre of the museum complex. It will connect to Neues Museum, Bodemuseum and Alte Nationalgalerie and the new entrance building.