Travel Stories - Turkey

The first thing we see entering the site of “Troy” is the gigantic wooden horse that is posted next to the parkinglot. Of course - everyone knows the story of the "Trojan horse" in which soldiers were hiding and after they were inside the city they crawled out at night to destroy the city and kill everybody. Later I would read that the "horse" was part of the famous "Trojan Wars" and was part of "Troy VIIa" as it is now called. Next to the horse is a small house that was used during the archaeological quests that took place here. I have read that for centuries it was thought that the story around "Troy" was only a legend, a story concocted by "Homer" when he wrote the book "Odyssey". In the 19th century, a German archaeologist investigated and found several cities of "Troy" or "Truva" built on each other since 3000 BC. 

In the house I see scale models and I also read that the treasures (jewelry) that he found during WWII suddenly disappeared to resurface years later in Russia's Moscow. The question now is of course when these finds go back to where they belong. There is also some information to read about the various periods of the different Troy's and I had no idea that it was also a Greek city and after that even a Roman city. In the "Pithos" garden next to the "Kazi Evi" house there are a number of large stock of chalices and drainage pipes. There is by means of arrows a route set in the area where once the powerful city stood to help you on your way in this very confusing site where 9 settlements were in different era’s. The first thing you notice is that nothing really stands - they are little pieces of wall, foundations and lots of signs where Trojan numbers are summed up. I’ts all very confusing. There can be read (and unfortunately not to see) that stones belong to the outer walls of Troy IV and where once a temple which was from the era of Troy II. A fake wall of fortifications of Troy II / III and a path that should have led to Troy II. You walk through it and try to imagine something, but with these ruins it is very difficult. You have images of the film on your retina but you see nothing or very little of it. Only the "Odeon" is in a reasonable condition but this is from Roman times. And within the foreseeable future you will be at the end of the walkway and we are back where we started.

By lunchtime the Japanese tourist I met and I are back in Kanaccale and we decide something to eat together. He asks me what I'm going to do after lunch and I tell him that I was actually planning to visit the sites in the city this afternoon. We decide to go together. It is a short walk to where three sites are next to each other; we skip the Archaeological Museum (we’ve seen enough stones and rubble), but we decide to go to the "military" museum next to the water of the Dardanelles. We take a look in the building where you can see beautiful photos of the old town of Kanaccale. Outside are large cannons that were used during the Gallipolli campaign in WWI and we visit the replica of the minelayer "Nurat". The story goes that when the Allies had swept the streets of Turkish mines, this boat went back up the water to lay new mines at night. Three English ships would have sunk because of this. In the background of the military complex is the "Cimenlek" castle which is built during "Mehmet" the conqueror's time. I walk back to my hostel, relax and plan my trip for tomorrow.