Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin

Also known as Altes Museum.
In here you could find some masterpieces of sculptures & paintings by Christian Daniel Rauch, Renoir, Monet, Manet, Cezanne & Constable.
If you love paintings or mainly just seeing some fine examples of beautiful paintings from the well-known painters, do come here.
You'll amazed at the collections displayed.

Pergamon Museum: A history museum with the monumental altar of Pergamon and a Babylonian Lion Gate as the main attractions, as well as many other treasures from antiquity and the Islamic World, India and China. Serious competition for the British Museum in London !

On an island in the Spree River, you will find five museums: the Pergamon, Museum of Antiquities, National Gallery, Altes and Bodemuseum. The Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) is also located on the island.
The perfect place to go in a rainy day.-

4 more images

The Pergamon Museum contains original-sized, reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate, all consisting of parts transported from the original excavation sites. These are some of the most amazing exhibits you will ever see in any museum and others could learn so much from this practice.

The museum is subdivided into the antiquity collection, the Middle East museum, and the museum of Islamic art. The museum is visited by approximately 850,000 people every year.

The Pergamon Altar is a magnificently opulent structure originally built in the 2nd century BC in the Ancient Greek city of Pergamon (modern day Bergama in Turkey) in north-western Anatolia, 25.74 kilometers (16 miles) from the Aegean Sea. It has long been assumed that the temple was dedicated to Zeus.[1]

It was excavated in two campaigns, in 1879 and 1904, and shipped out of the Ottoman Empire by the German archaeological team lead by Carl Humann; it was reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, built in part to receive it, from 1910, where it can be seen alongside other monumental structures such as the Market Gate of Miletus and the Ishtar Gate from Babylon.

The Altar has a 113 metre (371 feet) long sculptural frieze depicting the gigantomachy, or struggle of the gods and the giants. "the frieze is composed of a sequence of isolated, tightly-knit and self-contained groups and figures" each unit assigned to one workshop. Many inscriptions on the lower moulded margin identify the sculptor responsible and his city.[2]

Altes Museum or "Old Museum" is the oldest museum in Berlin - hence the name ;) It's one of the museums on Museumsinsel (the Museum island). It houses a collection of antiquities, the biggest attraction being the bust of Queen Nefertiti. Right next to the Altes Museum there is another great sight of the city, Berliner Dom.

1 more image

The great draw to this place is Ishtar Gate which was once considered one of the Wonders of the Ancient World (until being replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria)... How often do you get to see a Wonder of the World (even ifs its not anymore)? However, apart from the grand Pergamom Altar and the Ishtar Gate, there is little else to this museum. Not to say those are not enough, but you can visit this museum under an hour.

I didn't get a headset so I didn't get much historic context at the time, but when I read about the history of the two pieces, I'm glad I stopped by. I'm not a huge antiquities person, but the rebuilt structure are very impressive. However, because the beautiful structures are taken out of their natural surroundings, there was a little bit of sterility to the entire place.
I don't think its a must see, but if you are in the area, its not bad way to spend an hour.

1 more image

On this small island in the middle of former East Berlin, you will find several museums: the Pergamon Museum, Altes Museum, the Nationalgalerie and the Bodemuseum.
Also the Berliner Dom, church of the Hohenzollern family, can be found here. It houses the remains of 90 family members.