Turkey Traveller

The ruins of Troy (referred to by one writer as the ruins of ruins) are not going to be the most impressive archaeological site you will have the opportunity to see in your time in Turkey. However they will be one of the oldest, and their immortalisation by Homer accounts for a lot of interest. The site is actually much more than just the ruins of Troy (Truia, Truva) in the location are the archaeological remains of 9 cities all layered one on top of the other, this in itself makes it all but impossible to get a proper feeling about how any of these cities would have looked because all the ruins are intermingled with each other. The first excavation of Troy in 1870 was carried out by a German called H. Schlieman, sadly his obsession with discovering the Troy of Homer’s Iliad and the treasures of King Priam were to prove destructive and much of the archaeological evidence on the upper layers was destroyed, lost and looted. However up until this point the Homeric Troy was largely consid...

Çanakkale (pot fortress) is a small seaside town in the Çanakkale province; the town is located on the Asian side of the Dardanelles straits that connect the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean. Çanakkale's most famous landmark is the nearby ruined city of Troy (Truva) because of this you will see a large wooden horse as you walk along the promenade originally used for the film version of Troy and later donated to the town.The promenade is pleasant for a stroll and there are many cafes and restaurants in which you can sit and watch nautical traffic meandering up and down the Dardanelles, which is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The Dardanelles straits have always been of huge strategic importance as it provides the only access to the black sea. You can get frequent ferries from Çanakkale to the Gallipoli peninsular (Gelibolu) on the opposite side of the straits, the site of the tragic battle of Gallipoli in WWI. The town’s hotels fill up around April the 25th every year ...