6/17/2013

Troy, Legend and First Beauty Contest

Legend
To the most beautiful one… The most important battle of mythological world began with this simple sentence. Eris the goddess of strife and riot was not invited to an important meeting which was arranged by Zeus the God of Gods and Goddesses.
So Strife and riot goddess sends an apple to the meeting to take her revenge
Athena, Hera and Aphrodite quarrel and cannot decide who is the most beautiful one. So Zeus sends the Goddessed to Paris son of King Priamos and asks him to choose “the most beautiful”. Paris chooses Aphrodite the goddess of beauty and love as the most beautiful one. But of course nothings is gratuitous. Paris wants Helene the most beautiful woman in the world and wife of Menelaus King of Sparta.
Aphrodite does not return his wish and make Helen fall in love with Paris. Paris elopes Helen to Troy with help of Aphrodite.
So the Greeks who believe they are insulted declare a war to Troy. So a war called “Trojan” begins between Achaeans (Greeks) and Troy. We can say Trojan is the first war between east and west.
With the help of God and Goddesses (Athena, Aphrodite and Ares) war continues more than 10 years. Odysseus who is loved by Athena Goddess of wisdom makes a wooden horse. According to plan Achaeans would act like they withdraw and leaves that wooden horse behind. Odysseus and other skilled generals hide inside that wooden horse and others sail to Tenedos and hide. Achaeans leave only one soldier with the horse and send him to gates of Troy. This one soldier tells to people of Troy he hates Greeks, he escapes from them and runs to Lands of Troy, this wooden horse made as holly altar for the sake of Athena”. People of Troy let he wooden horse enter to their city to beg for mercy and peace from Athena. That night people of Troy get drunk with the joy of peace and in a sudden army of Achaean show up, destroy the city. After this great mess Menelaus takes Helen and sails to Greece.
This is a very brief summary of Iliad and Odyssey of Homer.
The Wind brought wealth to Troy
Troy till the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the city was presumed as mythological city. But is an ancient city which contains 9 cities or 9 layers.
Troy I (3000 – 2500 B.C.) : Initial settlement of the early bronze age
Troy II (2500 – 2200 B.C.) : First settlement, Center of contemporary civilization. Ended in a raging fire
Troy III ( 2200 – 2050 B.C. ) : Surrounded by walls, Buildings were larger and more developed than the previous period
Troy IV ( 2052 – 1900 B. C. ) : Blocks of the houses were attached to each other
Troy V ( 1900 – 1800 B. C. ) : More advanced techniques and workmanship in the construction of the walls and the houses
Troy VI ( 1800 – 1300 B.C. ) : Middle bronze age
Troy VI A ( 1300 – 1260 B.C. ) : Large storage jars that were set deeply into the ground and covered with a heavy stone slab to store solid and liquid supplies for an emergency
Troy VII B 1 ( 1260 – 1190 B. C. ) : Founded on Troy VI A * Similar construction techniques with Troy VI A
Troy VII B 2 (1190 – 110 B.C.) : New settlers
Troy VIII ( 700 – 350 B. C. ) : Repopulated by Greeks from Lesbos and Tenedos
Troy IX (350 – 400 A. D. ) : The city spread and covered the whole mound Hisarlik. Emporor Augustus rebuilt the city. The temple of Athena was the most important building


City Walls




Odeon & Bouleuterion



 


How Palace House looked like B.C. 1700


How Palace House looks like as of 2013


Holly Area


6/09/2013

Canakkale / Dardanelles

After Gallipoli, we went to Canakkale. We stayed in this lovely, small city just one day. The day after our stay, we hit the road to visit Troy, Assos, Pergamon.
Canakkale is a peaceful, lovely city. The city owns this reputation to students and in my humble opinion sea. Canakkale is a student city, 18 Mart University is located there. City shore is full of bars, students, young people.

Where to Stay
We stayed in Anzac Hotel, Hotel is rated with 4 stars at TripAdvisor, in my opinion it's an average hotel but staff is lovely and very helpfull.

Things To Do
There are so many things to do in the city. First you can take walk at the city shore. While you are walking sea coast, you'll see a big, wooden horse. Have you seen the movie Troy? If you have watched it you'll recognize the wooden horse. But if you didn't watch here some pictures of the Trojan Horse



Trojan Horse

Trojan Horse

Well, of course Trojan Horse is not only link to film-Troy. (Please note trojan horse at the pictures was given away to Canakkale by the film makers)

According to legend Iliad (written by Homer) Trojan Horse is model which was made by Odysseus in order to cross Troy citadels and enter the city on the quiet. After visiting Troy, I'll write the details about the Trojan War and Iliad .

After seeing Trojan Horse If you are interested in military things you can visit maritime museum, but if not, you can just sit on branches and watch Dardanelles.



Sunset at Maritimes Museum


Maritimes Museum / Atatürk

There is a small bazaar called "Aynalı Çarşı", for sovereigns you can visit there, but you won't find interesting things. For sovereigns  I recommend you to go a pedlar who sells beeds, rings, colourful rocks on his wheeled vehicle near to a cafe called Şakir'in Yeri. Speaking of Şakir'in Yeri, it's a lovely cafe at seaside, for food you can try there.


Some pieces at Aynalı Çarşı


Şakir'in Yeri
 

Gallipoli

Gallipoli means "beautiful city" in Ancient Greek. Gallipoli is one of the cities which is located in Canakkale (Dardanelles) province.
We could not spend so much to discover the city, we stopped by Gallipoli  on our way to Canakkle.








EATING

We have found a lovely fish resturant by the seashore, name of this lovely restaurant is İlhan. I strongly recommend you to go there when you are in Gallipoli.






SIGHTSEEING

Gallipoli is hometown is great Turkish Marine Piri Reis. Piri Reis is famous with his world map. He drew second world map. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_Reis .
So there is a Piri Reis Museum in the city center.

Piri Reis Museum



Canakkale Martyrs' Memorial

Canakkale Martyrs' Memorial was built in memory of martyrs who lost their life in Dardanelles Battle, 1915 during World War I.