Truva That

Today we hopped on the Dalmus (minibus) and headed out to the ruins of Troy (known in Turkis as Troia or Truva). The site is located on the Hisarlik Hill in a spectacular area near the sea, the river, and the fertile valley. The site was discovered in 1822 and excavated by the German amateur archeologist (which typically means treasure hunter) Schliemann. It’s hard to blame him too much since I’m not even sure that archeology really existed in 1822 – but needless to say lots of the items found in Troy found their way back to their German homeland …hmmm.

Anywho, those of you who remember your Junior High reading assignments already know the story of Troy, for those of you who are a little lite on their recollection, here is a quick synopsis (at least of the few weeks covered by Homer in the Iliad).

The Trojan Prince Paris is sent to Greece to rescue the captured Trojan Princess Hesione or take a prisoner. However ,when he arrives he forgets his mission and falls in love with Helen, who happens to be married to Menelaus (king and brother to Agamemnon). Paris takes Helen back to Troy and this doesn’t go over well with the Greeks…bring on the war! So the war goes on for years with lots of famous people getting killed (Brad Pitt, oops sorry Achilles, Ajax, etc). The war finally came to an end when the chief strategist Odysseus tells the Greeks to feign surrender and as a sign of their loss leave an offering of a giant wooden horse (filled with soldiers) for the Trojans. The plan worked, Helen went back to Greece, and all of that was well worth the bloodshed.

Anyhow, because of Homer this site had been sought and referenced for hundreds of years, and when it was finally found the archeologists were so excited they just started digging, and digging and digging – digging through about 5,000 years worth of city history until he discovered that he’d gone a tad too far and found something a couple thousand or so years older than the Troy of Homer’s epic.

That said, he did uncover some cool stuff. The digging of the Schliemann trench, as it came to be known, revealed a series of civilizations built one on top of the other, with 10 distinct periods. Turns out that the Troy of Homer’s myth was Troy 6.

It was a beautiful site, and one of my favorites, not because of the treasure trove of buildings or artifacts, but because Ulises and I had the entire place to ourselves for 3 hours. We bought a good guidebook at the entrance, and I got to be tour guide as we wandered from bastion walls, to temples, to theaters. It was wonderful and quite surreal.

Afterwards we headed back to town and grabbed a $3 fake coffee from the hotel coffee stash and planned out our next day….for tomorrow we are off to Istanbul.