Troy

Cannakkale ( ka·nuh·ka·lay) is the jumping off point to visit the site of the city of Troy. It is a fishing port with ferries crossing the Dardanelles waterway to link both sides of Turkey.There are the remains of fortresses on either side that would have been used by the Ottomans to defend the waterway.

Cats are everywhere in Turkey. People leave out food and water. They all look well fed and are happy to be stroked.

Troy was a city that was rebuilt over nine times. Sometimes it was destroyed by earthquakes and sometimes by war. It was rebuilt by using existing structures or in the case of the Greeks completely covered and built on top of the original structure. It is possible that the Trojan horse did happen as archeological evidence suggests at one time the main city wall was broken to move a huge object into the city and then the wall hastily repaired using smaller stones. Of course no horse remains as being of wood , it decayed quickly. So why doesn’t a modern Troy city exist. Troy was a trade hub with a deep harbour. Over time the harbour silted and became a swamp so it was no longer an economic hub.

Clay bricks were originally used to build simple dwellings. They had a limestone base and then clay bricks. Some were fired for the outer walls. Holes in the bricks were caused by wasps just like the mud wasps we see today.

You have walked through excavations showing different eras of the city. It has been preserved in this way because a treasure hunter called Heinrich Schliemann in 1870 wanted to become famous for discovering the lost treasure of Troy. He organised locals to dig or blast trenches in the area he thought Troy had existed. Bingo! He found treasure and fame. Oops, lots of the archeological evidence was destroyed. On the good side, he showed there were layers and on the bad side, destroyed many artefacts.The treasure? It was looted from Berlin in 1945 and is now in Putin museum. Good luck in ever seeing that again Turkey☹️.

Quiet day tomorrow wandering the city….so relax.