Troy

Looking at the map, we realize that the old city of Troy is really close to the Dardanelles and decide to visit this very famous place. More than nine cities were built on this remarkable site over thousands of years, each using the previous one as foundations. One of them (layer 6) has been identified as where the Trojan war took place. The UNESCO world heritage site comprises a museum and the open air excavated site.

We remember the Trojan war from Homer: the Greek and Trojan heroes, the sleezy, the cuckold, the shrewd, and the brave, all helped by strong personnal connections to the Olympian gods; and the war's resolution with the Trojan Horse. In the museum, a revelation: Troy, in ancient times, was on the shores of the Dardanelles! Probably that war, just like that of 1915, was a fight for control of the waterway to the Black Sea and its riches....

After visiting the museum on a grey-rainy afternoon, we benefit from morning sun to visit the city. Here, the vertiginous sense of time, the generations of builders, habitants, and catastrophic destructions is truly catching. The stone work of the 6th layer, which is linked to Homer's Iliad, is mind-blowing.Read more