After our first night at the Otel Iris, we got up the next morning, loaded into the bus, and took the short drive to the archaeological excavations of ancient Troy.

Before we entered, we had a visit to the strangely preserved Trohan Horse...

which turned out to be full of bad Greeks, still to this day...


Suleyman spent some time recalling the legend with us, the Goddess of Discord dropping that golden apple with "for the fairest" on it at a wedding feast, Zeus having Paris (then living on Mt. Ida) choose between the three main goddesses, Aphrodite promising him Helen, and so on (my 277 Troy students might be able to fill in those details sometime...).  Then Suleyman led us into the city of Troy.

What is misleading, perhaps, is to simply call this Troy. They have now figured out that there are 9 strata here, that is, 9 distinct cities, built on each other.  Troy 1 would have begun about 5000 years ago. 


Troy 6 was a rich market town, where merchants might wait for months for favorable winds.  The inner citadel had 15 foot thick walls, slanted at the base, with a gate around the corner.




We visited the bare marble floor where the temple of Athena once stood, overlooking the countryside.  Later, we saw the ramp that would have led up to the citadel of Troy 2, one of the richer incarnations.

And just beyond, the infamous Schliemann's Trench where he found much treasure from Troy 2...



And, well, lots more here--council place, sacrifice pits, other strata and walls.  And the dog...

later, bob