April 15: Troy -- Achilles and the Hellespont (Dardanelles)

Ian's day to blog.  Margaret's evening to snore.

Today we visited Troy and then continued north to the coast to look across the Hellespont to the Gallipoli peninsula and Europe.  The memorial to the battles fought there in the first world war stood out on the horizon.  We attempted to find the tomb of Achilles-the Achillieon, but there were no signs.  The search did lead us to a beautiful and deserted beach.

The Hellespont looking across to Eurpoe

Today our main goal was to see the site of Troy.  Troy is about an hours drive north of where we stayed at Assos.  The site is interesting, but not nearly as extensive as I had imagined it.  Both Hierapolis and Miletus were much larger in scope.  It was fascinating to see the infamous Schliemann trench and the way he cut through the different layers of history piled one on the other.  Unfortunately, I found it difficult to picture the site as it must have been in the Trojan War – with the sea coming in close to the City walls.  One of the high points was seeing the mud brick that remained from Troy II (early 2^nd millennium BC – 5,000 years ago!), especially where it was tinted red from the fire that seems to have destroyed that phase of the city.  I also liked the new red mud brick they added recently, as it gave a good impression of what the original brick must have looked like.

The original mud brick burnt in the destruction of Troy II.  You can see numerous holes bored into the brick by a type of Bee - sort of like a mason bee, but much bigger.

We left Troy about 2:00 PM and drove north to Kumkale and then to the coast on the Hellespont opposite the Gallipoli peninsula.  Where we stopped there were two six inch guns in their emplacements that I assumed to be WWI vintage.  We could see the Turkish memorial for the Gallipoli campaign standing out prominently in the hills across the water.

6" gun commanding a view of the Hellespont - WW I vintage, I assume.

After looking across the straight to Europe we attempted to find Achillieon, but weren’t able to locate it.  Achillieon is a city that was built by the tomb of Achilles.  We did, however, find a beautiful beach that we had all to ourselves for a brief stroll.  We then had another of our impromptu drives through the beautiful and verdant Turkish countryside courtesy of the GPS.

The beautiful beach.

The Temple of Athena at Assos.

Finally, when we returned to Assos, we climbed to the top of the Acropolis to see the Temple of Athena and the later Byzantine fortifications.  This part of the site had an entry fee of 8 TL.

View from the Acropolis of Assos out towards Lesbos

500 year old Ottoman era bridge near Assos.

Tonight we had dinner in the Hotel again and tomorrow we are off to Sardis, capital of the Lydian Kingdom of King Croesus.