Alexandria Troas Arch and Baths

So we were driving away, a one-lane road through the fields and olive groves, 
and saw this large structure; I walked over to it...four big walls, a large arched 
entrance, but absolutely no indication of what it was

Walking back through the recently plowed fields, I couldn't help but notice they are 
as much clay pottery shards as rock; and some marble facing too*

And then I saw this in the distance, buried among the trees

and dense undergrowth



And this; feeling a bit like Indiana Jones, I went back for Vicki 
and together we explored

This, the originally quadruple-arched entrance to the baths, the big bath complex 
we had read about

Two of the arches are fully intact, one has collapsed, and one is supported, sort of, 
by a timber frame

Thus

Another look

And there, looking through the arch, is one side of the 12-bay bath complex; 
the vegetation was too dense to get any better a shot; but that was part of the 
fun

One of the 12 bays, all pretty much intact; it was a hoot getting to see all this
before the spades go to work


*PS [2023] We helped ourselves to some of the shards, some of the more impressively carved pieces, and carried them with us on the rest of our travels in Turkey, then Greece, and then Italy. It was at Fiumicino airport, returning to the US, passing through immigrations/customs, that the officials detained Vicki, who was carrying the shard-laden suitcase. The Italians are very serious about removal of antiquities from their land. I assured her that in the Italian penitentiary she would get all the great pizza she'd ever dreamed of.... At length, we convinced the officials that the shards were from Turkey, about which they very little cared, and we were on our way, shards and all, which spent the next decade and more in our storage unit in Missoula.... To be continued...