Hellespont

We drove on, viewing the Hellespont from a variety of angles, stopping in Canakkale to board our ferry back to Europe; well, European Turkey.

Entrance to the Hellespont, the narrow strait leading to the Sea of Marmure, 
to Istanbul, the Bosphorus, and then the Black Sea; an historic place, as long 
as there has been history

Past Canakkale, where it gets really narrow, some say 1200 meters, some say 
1500 meters; in any case, less than a mile, short enough for the Persians to 
stretch a pontoon bridge across for their hundred thousand troops

Traffic is always brisk

Traffic on the road to Canakkale was interesting, varied...



Our ferry, the Good Ferry Ezine, about to arrive in Canakkale

It's been more than a year since the Grey Wanderer's last boat ride, across the 
English Channel; the weather this day was balmy, calm

Farewell, Canakkale, and Asia, again

Our crack satnav, Tom, ever keeping track of us; we think this might have been 
his first trip to Anatolian Turkey

Hello, Eceabat, the Gallipoli Peninsula, the Dardanelles, and Europe

Troy

We drove on to Truva, modern-day Troy. The story of the German-American Heinrich Schliemann's 1870s discovery of Troy, following Homer's literary leads, is well enough known. Schliemann was an adventurer, made his money in the California gold rush, a treasure-hunter and relentless self-promoter, who savaged the place, but got what he was looking for. What he never fully realized was that he had uncovered a site that included as many as nine distinct cities, one atop another, going back 5,000 years. Homer's Troy, if there was such a thing, and if this is it, is conjectured to be either Troy VI or Troy VII, that is, end of the Bronze Age, 13th century BCE or so. The site was well enough known in antiquity. Xerxes sacrificed a thousand oxen there prior to crossing the Hellespont to invade Greece. The Romans reverred the place, as they did anything Greek, but especially so since they thought (after Virgil) they were descended from the Trojan Aeneas. Only in the middle ages was it "lost." Anyhow, it is one of Turkey's most popular sites, one of its many World Heritage Sites, and, like the Eiffel Tower or the Great Wall or the Taj Mahal, something you just can't miss. I think the state has done a good job with it, as complicated and dug-over as it is. But if your interests are strictly Homeric, you're not going to be pleased. Troy museum artifacts are in Canakkale, which we skipped, Istanbul, which we saw, and in Berlin, which was closed when we were there in spring of 09.

More beautiful landscape along the way

Most-photographed item at Troy

Most-photographed pose

Famous photo of Schliemann's wife wearing

"Priam's gold"--well, someone's gold

Most of the place looks like this

Northeast citadel, Troy VI

Looking toward the beaches, where most of the fighting

occurred; to the right, the Hellespont; of course, after 3000
years of silting-up, one assumes the beaches were much
nearer in the time of Agamemnon and Priam, Paris and Helen,
et al.

Schliemann's original trench; it says

something about the place that this would

be memorialized...



This, I thought, was the most compelling scene at Troy:

showing all 9 layers...

To wit...



Troy VII structure

Odeon--Roman Troy

Pillars thought to be part of Priam's palace...



South gate, Troy VI-VII

Two red squirrels, Hector of the gleaming helmet and
swift-footed Achilles, fight it out before the walls of Troy;
well, actually, on the walls of Troy

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...

Alexandria Troas

Most of the ruins one sees are managed, orchestrated, even contrived. They have been gone over, finely, more than once, and then put back together, hopefully with an eye to authenticity and education. Everything you see has been put there by some contemporary of yours. Perhaps that's a cynical view, but, except for the largest items, I don't think it's far off. Every now and then, however, if you have the opportunity, you can see something significant that awaits excavation, or is in the midst of it. At Alexandria/Troas, a late 4th century BCE Hellenistic/Roman town, we had that opportunity and one of the best site visits we have ever had. Of course, part of it is just wandering through the olive groves, spotting something curious in the distance, and then finding it to be really spectacular. It was our last ruins site in Turkey. (I don't count Troy).

Near the agora, in Alexandria Troas; as an under-developed site, undergoing 
excavation, there was no entrance fee, no parking fee, so we spent the night 
there

In the agora

Temple in the agora

Nicely carved piece

Excavation refuse pile, the small bits (pottery shards)

The medium-sized bits

The large bits

Including these Hellenistic cannon balls

And the extra large bits

Alexandria Troas is noted for having possibly the largest Roman baths complex 
in Anatolia; I saw three sets of these structures around the agora, and concluded 
I had seen the noted baths; but stay tuned...

Backroads of Aegean Turkey

We drove on, looking back to hilltop Assos and its situation

on the sea

From a high point: much more stone fencing here than we

have seen in Turkey; olive groves everywhere, the whole

population out in the groves for the harvest; I love olives;

they're cheap and delicious here; but seeing the labor-

intensiveness, the back-breaking work, will make me value

each one a little more

One of a dozen or more stone round-houses we saw, all

bunched together in one little town

An exceedingly rocky country, but beautiful grasses and

pines and undergrowth everywhere; maybe it was the

Mediterranean/Aegean light, but the greens here were as

verdant and vibrant as any I have seen

Lunch-time view

The seaside fortress at Babakale, the last Ottoman castle

built

View from Babakale



Another



The Temple of Apollo at Gulpinar; those of you familiar

with the Iliad will recognize this as (a much later version of)

the Apollo temple that figures importantly in Homeric

matters; Agamemnon had to return the daughter of the priest

here, after offending Apollo, and then grabbed Achilles'

trophy-girl, thus inflaming Achilles' rage, of which Homer

sang; much less importantly, it is also a temple to mice (yes,

mice), who figure in the founding of the city in ways too

boring to recount; 2nd century BCE

More archaeology going on at Gulpinar

Funded by Efes; never forget that Jack Horner's first funder

was Rainier Beer; cheers for Efes

I am going to guess this is where the archaeology students

hang out in the summer-time; more Efes fans