Troy

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Day 8: Today we woke up rediculously early, the alarm went off at 515am. It is a good thing too because our little tour guide arrived half an hour early. Five and a half hours later we arrived at our destination. It took us a minute to realize that we had travelled all the way down the Turkish penninsula to where the Darnadelle straight and the Agean sea meet. We then caught a ferry and headed over to Asia minor to visit Troy.

There are a few different versions of the legend of the Trojan horse. One of the more popular ones being that the Trojans kidnapped Helena and the Greeks began a campaign against Troy in an effort to get her back. After perilous years of fighting with no success in breaching the Trojan defences the Greeks designed a wooden horse as a gift to Troy with soldiers hidden inside of it and well you guys know the rest of the story. The funny thing about the Trojan horse is that there is no actual evidence that it existed. There are only the legends and still today many archeologists will argue the existed of such a wooden horse. The second thing that historians and archeologists use to discredit the legend is the fact that they beleive it is outlandish for the Greeks to start a 10 year war and take on the casualties that they did over one woman. Instead they figure the war started over the entrance to the Dardanelles, which Troy controlled, because it was the only ice free passage to Russia and eastern Europe. This is the same cause of the Gallipoli campaign during World War I. When the tour guide asked me if I would start a war over a single woman my reply was; "aren't the dardanelles much better than a beautiful woman?!"

The actual city itself has 9 different layers which were created over a period of 3500 years. When the first city was unoccupied for a period of time the structures became too fragile to re-use as a defensive position so the Trojans just rebuilt the city using the old one as a foundation. As a result of this the base of the city rose over 20 meters in a period of 3500 years. It is absolutely amazing what they could build with the resources of the era. The stone walls built 3500 years ago are still partially standing.

They were also smart about how they built there fortress. Location, location, location! It was on top of a hill so that they could see the Greek army coming from miles away on any side. Secondly, and quite ingenious, they spiraled the walls of the fortress so that an invading army would be funneled into a tight space for easy pickings and it didn't allow enough room to use a battering ram. They also designed the walls so that they prevented anyone to climb them. This is the reason that the Greeks found it so difficult to defeat Troy.

Now, for those of you who know Terri, she takes interest in this type of history on a whole other level than where I'm at. History is her thing! Needless to say we broke the strict "NO BOOK RULE." The president is now set and I have a sinking feeling that we are going to break that rule a few more times.

On the way back our bus had technical issues. Basically the engine light came on and we stopped at every little place on the planet to find a place that could take a look at it. As it turns out the sensor just needed to be reset and 7 hours later we arrived back at our hostel.

Time for bed...

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