Ancient Troy

Today’s wooden horse at Troy

Other than the Gallipoli Peninsula, the main reason to visit Çanakkale is to see Troy. The ancient site lies 37km southwest of Çanakkale and bay outside its gates, where Agemmemon’s ships hauled up on the beach, has long since silted up and there is now nowhere suitably close to leave a boat. So we did as many visitors to the site do and jumped on a dolmuş from Çanakkale which, for very few Turkish Lira, took us there in about 45mins.

The brief version of the excavation of Troy is that in 1873 it was rediscovered by a keen and very wealthy industrialist, Heinrich Schliemann, who had become obsessed with Homer’s story of Troy, the Illiad. Schliemann’s excavation was before modern achaelogical techniques had been developed and so this initial work was actually very destructive. As excavation techniques have developed, far more clarity has been brought to the complex and multi-layered history of the site but a lot of clues have been lost.

Pictorial representations of the various phases of Troy

Over the years many parts of the many incarnations of Troy were built with sun baked mudbricks which could not be reused. As the city was destroyed by earthquakes, fire or armed assault, these mudbrick constructions were levelled and became the foundations for the next rebuild of the city. This explains why the site has been raised up so much over the years. Later Greek (Troy VIII) and Roman (Troy IX) construction used more stone. In all there are 9 cities (or layers) of Troy but it gets a little confusing because the archaeologists have also subdivided each of these ‘cities’ into more detailed construction phases so there is reference to, for example, Troy phases (Ia-Ik) as you walk around the site.

Information board demonstrating the various layers of Troy’s history    

Excavations have discovered these distinct layers, indicating the course of the city’s history as it has been repeatedly destroyed and then rebuilt. In one part of the ruins the different layers are marked but in general you have to rely on the information boards to try to unravel what you are looking at. It can get very confusing.

Troy I        2920-2450 BC
Troy II       2600-2450 BC Destroyed by fire
Troy III-V  2450-1700 BC
Troy VI     1700-1250 BC  The Troy of the Illiad with a population of around 7000
Troy VII    1250-1000 BC Destroyed by fire
Troy VIII   700-85 BC Greek period. Destroyed by the Roman
Troy IX     85 BC-500 AD Roman period

Not only were the mud bricks of the early Troy destroyed prior to construction of the later period(s) city, any remaining mud bricks are could be easily damaged by rain, sun, floodwater or the footsteps of visitors. In one area, the original 2500BC foundation stones of the city’s walls have been uncovered, with some mud brick layers on top. To protect the original structure, some has been reburied, whilst some has been protected by the addition of new mud bricks to provide a larger reconstruction of the original. The whole is protected by a UNESCO-funded shelter and walkways so that visitors like us can see that which would have to otherwise be protected in a glorified shed.

View north, over the now silted up Bay of Troy, towards the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula    

Ancient Troy was located on the high ground beside a large bay at the southwestern end of the Dardenelles, or Hellespont as it was known then. Troy made its wealth from being the perfect place for ships to stop whilst they waited for the right wind to help them fight their way up the Hellespont against the current. The large bay has now silted up but from the ruins on the hilltop we could see out across where it once was.

The later walls (Greek and Roman) were built in stone and from what has been uncovered and reconstructed you can get an idea of the size of Troy at that time and of how it would have dominated the area from the top of the hill, albeit a rather low hill.

Priam’s treasure?

Since Schliemann’s first discovery there has been significant controvosy over which layer was Homer’s Troy, and this controvosy continues today. Despite the crudeness of Schliemann’s excavations, he found, and partly identified, multiple layers of the city. Near to the Troy II stone ramp gate (see below) a treasure hoard was discovered. A 2 metre thick burnt layer also revealed that the Troy II citadel had been destroyed by fire. Schliemann pronounced the hoard to be the legendary “Priam’s treasure” and Troy II to be the one from Homer’s Illiad for which he had been searching.

Subsequent excavations at Troy have been conducted far more scientifically, even within Schliemann’s lifetime, and it is now known that Schliemann was off by a good 1200 years; Troy VII was probably the Troy from the Illiad. Schliemann doggedly stuck to his initial assessment for most of his life but in 1890, the last year of his life, he did acknowledge his mistake.

Restored ramp entrance into the Citadel, Troy II

Part of the fortifications of the Troy II citadel included a large ramp up to the western entrance gate. This was most likey needed because of the extra height of the citadel which had been built on top of Troy I. The ramp has been excavated and restored so now you can easily see the entrance into the citadel. Also visible on either side are the limestone bricks which formed the foundations for the layers of mudbricks walls built up above.

Troy VI Palace walls

In one area the walls of the Troy VI citadel have been exposed where they formed part of the base of the palace complex. The stones have been more carefully cut here and fitted together without the need of mortar. Homer repeatedly mentions the ‘beautiful walls of Troy’ and perhaps these are the walls to which he was referring.

South gateway into Troy VI

The principal entrance to the citadel of Troy VI was probably through the south gate. The line of the roadway still survives and the lower levels of the south tower, just to the left of the gate, are also visible.

Troy VIII-IX Archaic Sanctuary

In the Greek and Roman times Troy was an important religious centre. The ruins of the sanctuary have been uncovered but it is not known to which god or gods the Archaic Sanctuary was dedicated.

Tucked away down the hill is a cave which turned was a significant element of the city’s water management system. The system was enlarged and improved over the life of the city but the earliest parts of this cave date back to the 3^rd millenium BC. Between 1997 and 2001 archeological work was completed undergound in these waterways and it is now known that there were 4 vertical shafts, each 17m high, which connected this waterway with the surface. In Roman times water was moved around the city in a network of terracotta pipes.

Troy IX Roman Odeon

The Romans also added an Odeon for musical performances and presentations during the Troy IX period. Nearby there was a bathhouse, a bouleuterian and the agora too but their layout is not so easily discerned.

In some ways there is quite a lot to see at Troy even if it does lack the grandure and size of some of the ancient sites we have visited previously. It is also not as well preserved as other sites and, because of the continual building up on top of the previous ruins, it is difficult to get a clear idea of what it might have looked like. But, because of Homer’s Illiad it does have a certan magic. Finding the place dispelled the long held view in certain academic circles that the Illiad was just a story and Troy never existed. There is obviously a lot more that will be uncovered as the excavations continue so maybe there is more to come, but you do get the impression that the site has been somewhat raided during the early excavations. That said it’s still pretty impressive to see so much of a city that existed so long ago – I don’t imaging there will be so much of many of our modern cities left in 2000 years’ time or more!

So, having not climbed into the Trojan Horse, we took the dolmuş back to Çanakkale to prepare for the journey south again. With our plans to return to Turkey at the end of the summer there was now little more time left on our visitors’ visas, certainly not enough to get up the Dardarnelles and across the Sea of Marmara to Istanbul. That’s definitely one for next year. For now, we would go back towards Babakale and then on to Ayvalik from where we were planning see our last big ancient site in Turkey, Pergamon, before checking out of the country.

Çanakkale, Turkey