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Published: November 16th 2009
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Çanakkale, Turkey, Oct. 21st - 24th, 2009 After leaving the hustle and bustle of Istanbul, we were off to Canakkale to see the legendary city of Troy, or at least what remains of it. Six hours on the bus and half an hour on the ferry and we had finally left mainland Europe and were now technically in Asia. The ruins of Troy lie about 30 km outside of Canakkale, a short trip on a crowded minibus. We had heard from many that the the ruins are not nearly as impressive as others that can be found in Turkey, but we could not miss the chance to see the actual site of the famous Trojan War. The rumours turned out to be true, as the ruins do not really resemble the great city that is described in Homer's Illiad. Apparently the man who discovered Troy, a German named Heinrich Schliemann, was more interested in finding treasures than actually uncovering the lost city. In his hasty excavation, he is said to have ruined much of what was left of the city. Nonetheless, one cannot help to stand on the ruins and imagine the Trojans wheeling in the massive horse that
Canakkale
Trojan Horse from the movie "Troy" on display in Canakkale would eventually lead to their demise.
The ruins are actually that of nine different city's that were built on top of the previous one, and it's believed that the the seventh city is the one of King Priam which was sacked by the Greeks. It only took two hours to see the ruins as the whole city only covers about 20,000 square meters. Once leaving Troy, little did we know our adventures for the day were just beginning. We tried catching the bus back to Canakkale at 4pm, only to have the driver shake his head at us and take off! Not wanting to waste two hours waiting for the next one we set off to hitch hike our way back. Fortunately we were picked up by two Turks who drove us to the next bus stop on the main highway. We managed to get back to Canakkale before sunset to see the actual Trojan horse that was used in the 2004 movie. We spent that evening sitting underneath the horse drinking vodka... pretty cool place to have a drink.
The next day we set off to visit the World War I battlefield of Gallipoli. To most, this place
ANZAC Cove
The beaches where the Allied landings took place. is just another battlefield, but to Australians and New Zealanders it is almost like a place of pilgrimage. It is the location of the failed 8 month Allied campaign to close the Dardanelles and knock Turkey out of the war for good. It started with a naval campaign when the allies sent battleships to close the straights, this quickly backfired as many were sunk by the Turks... they lie on the bottom of the straights to this day. After this disaster the allies tried to achieve the same objective by land, landing over half a million men on the Gallipoli peninsula. The Turks, fully aware of the strategic importance of the peninsula, put up a stuborn defense. 8 months of bloody trench warfare followed, after which the allies were forced to withdrawal with losses of over a quarter million men.
We managed to hire a taxi driver for the day, who also turned out to be a big history enthusiast. He drove us around all the major sights of the battlefield, while at the same time telling us a detailed history of the events that occurred there. We went to a great museum of the battle that was filled
Turkish Trenches
at the headquarters of Mustafa Kemal... in 8 months of fighting these positions were never taken by the allies. with artifacts excavated from the battlefield. There was two particular items in the museum that stood out, one being the shoes of a ANZAC soldier... with his feet still in them. One can only assume what fate he met. The other items were two bullets fused together when they collided in mid air. There were a few bullets like this, and one can only imagine the ferocity of the firefight when bullets actually collide in mid air. We also got to see many of the remaining trenches left from the battle. Some (maılnly the Turkısh ones) were well preserved while the Anzac ones were left alone and were quite deterıorated by the elements. We spent most of the afternoon tourıng the dıfferent trenches, cemeteries, and monuments to the battle before catchıng the ferry back to Canakkale on the Asian side of Turkey.
From Canakkale we started to head south to Izmir, with a quick stop at the the ancient ruins of Pergamon, in what is now modern day Bergama. After a 4 hour bus ride we were dropped of by the side of the road about 8km out of town. We arrived pretty late, and by now it was
getting dark by 5.30 so we had no light left. We waited until the next day to climb the hill and visit the ancient acropolis. Thanks to the advice of a Brit in our guesthouse, we managed to sneak in through a hole in the fence and avoid the 20 TL entrance fee. It took us most of the day to walk through the winding streets leading up to the place and to explore the ruins. According to the guidebook, these are some of the best preserved ruins in all of Turkey... the massive 10,000 seat Roman theater could probably still hold performances today. Stopping here was definitely worthwhile, but by now we've seen so many ruins that we are getting a little tired of old rocks.
From here we are on our way east to Syria wıth a few more stops ın Turkey.
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