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Main Circuit
The James Simon Galerie offers the thousands of visitors who visit the Museumsinsel every day representational, multifunctional reception and orientation rooms with direct spatial connection to the main circuit in the Pergamonmuseum. The major exhibits which will be brought together there will give an impressive survey of the monumental architecture of the ancient world. The exhibits on Islam (in the North Wing) and on the ancient culture of the Near East (in the South Wing) will also be embedded in the appropriate collection.
The circuit starts in the new fourth wing along the Kupfergraben with the Temple Gate of Kalabscha (around 15 BC) and the pyramid Temple of Sahurê (around 2400 BC) as examples of Early Egyptian architecture. The Gate of the Hittite Palace of Tell Halaf with its larger than life statues of gods (9th century BC) marks the transition to the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Near East Museum). There the visitor walks along the Processional Street of Babylon, as in ancient times, to reach the Ishtar Gate (6th century BC), behind which the wing for Greek and Roman antiquity begins with the Market Gate of Miletus (around 120 AD). Then the visitor enters the Pergamon Room for the unforgettable experience of the overpowering setting of the Pergamon Altar (164-156 BC), which seems to burst the confines of this room.
The no less impressive façade of the Early Islamic desert Palace of Mschatta (743-744) will move from the upper level of the South Wing into the main level of the North Wing of the Pergamonmuseum, where the other exhibits of the Museum für Islamische Kunst will likewise be presented.
With that the visitor can experience an initial, intensive encounter with antiquity which is not possible to such a monumental extent in any other museum of the world.
