"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."

We had heard mixed reviews about Troy.  Fodor’s says what a person will get out it depends on his or her imagination.  I think in this case a lot also had to do with a person’s knowledge of Homer and the story he told about Troy. 

This is the horse from the movie Troy.  We have heard rumors that Brad Pitt actually donated the horse to the city of Canakkale, but have no proof of that.  There was a sign that did conform that it was the horse from the movie though.

Dad had read both the Iliad and the Odessy and this was one of the highlights of his trip.  I haven’t read either, but I still really enjoyed the site and thought it had a lot more to offer than people were giving it credit for.  We had heard it was literally a pile of rocks and to the average eyes it sort of is, but to professional ruins sniffers like Dad and myself, and with the assistance of well labeled and explained plaques that lines the tourist path, we got a lot out of it.

I did research online the night before to see where the bus stop in Canakkale was that would take us to Troy.  The directions said to go two traffic circles, take a right, and the bus station is located under the bridge.  I didn’t realize how literal these directions were. This is the bus station and as you can see it’s under a bridge.

We got the schedule mixed up and thought we had an hour to kill before the next bus so Dad and I wandered around the bridge area and were happy to discover the Friday market.

This market was twice the size of the Kemer market we had been so impressed with.  Aisles and aisles of produce, olives and olive oil, dough and pasta, clothes, and anything else you could put on a table and sell.  The produce here was displayed in bulk and in some cases sold in bulk.  We asked a lady how late the market ran and she said as late as 8:00pm so we decided to stock up on our way back from the daily trip.

This was also the clothes market.  In Kemer it was two separate days, but here it’s a one stop shop.  Dad took this photo of a clothing vender standing on a crate to see over his stand.  There were clothes on display from ceiling to table and woman pushing their way from table to table trying to get the best deal.  It reminded me of Christmas shopping at the mall.

This is the horse at the actual site of Troy!  If you look really close you can see Dad smiling at the top.  There were stairs so you could climb up to the top and invade the city.  The Iliad was written 500 years after the actual war that took place between the Trojans and the Greeks so it’s hard to tell how much was fact and how much was fiction. 

Dad didn’t have the Iliad on board, but he did have the Odyssey.  The Iliad was the war story that introduced Odysseus.  To sum up the story Helen was captured and King Menelaus, her husband, wanted her back.  A thousand ships were launched to get her back and 10 years later and with the help of a few gods, they were still fighting.  Odysseus ordered a huge wooden horse to be built and they left it at the gate of the city with men inside.  The Greeks pretended to sail away and the Trojans took the horse in as a gift.  They partied and fell asleep and the Greeks that were hidden inside the horse let themselves out, opened the city gates, and let the army in to take control of the city.  Easy as pie.

The 5000 year old city has many layers, like an onion… or Shrek.  This diagram and photo show that there were at least 4 layers to Troy and possibly up to 38 total layers of settlements in this spot.  Heinrich Schliemann poured his wealth into the excavations and is considered the person who “discovered” Troy and the other civilizations on top or underneath it.

It was very windy on top of the hill.  There was a point where we could look out at very fertile farm land and actually see the Mediterranean Sea.  Everything was very green and we got to see more cows.

This is the ceiling of a Temple of Athena.  If you look closely you will see a head of broccoli.  Dad and I were so excited to find broccoli at the market, we didn’t want to wait to purchase it and bought it before our trip to Troy.  I thought since I was carrying it around the entire day, I would at least get a photo taken with it.  So broccoli, Mow, and myself posed with the ceiling from a famous pagan temple.  (The major vegetable sold in Turkey, at least during this time of year, is the green pepper.  It’s served at every meal and there are mountains of it at the market.)

This is a sanctuary.  As you can see there is still a lot of excavating and restoration that needs to be done.  There are so many places that need help, and not enough patrons to pay for it.  We were able to use our imagination to piece the places together, but for someone who hasn’t been to as many ancient sites as us, this may see unimpressive.

I wanted a photo of Dad and I in front of the horse, so we got one.  There was a very small museum there which was sponsored but the University of Colorado or something like that and didn’t have a whole lot to show.  It reminded me of the rec room in Wisconsin and smelled like cat spray.

We made it back with more than enough time to shop at the market and walked back to the boat hauling bags of fresh produce.  This was a highlight of Dad’s trip and I really enjoyed it too.