Ferry across the Dardanelles and visit to Troy

Friday, March 12, 2010
Today we left our Istanbul hotel and took the bus along the Sea of Marmara to Gallipoli, where we crossed the Dardanelles and went on to the site of Troy.

The scenery along our route was interesting. We see many areas where new apartments are built and our guide explained that the land is owned by the government and a developer can apply for the permission to build there, but must provide replacement housing for anyone who has squatted on the government land. The developer still makes money by building many units to sell, even though he must provide free homes to the squatters.

Another interesting building technique we noticed was that many homes are built with the rebar for another floor sticking out of the roof. The idea is that when the kids grow up and marry the next floor will be built for the newlyweds to occupy.

Turkey is a very green agricultural country. We passed through miles of rice paddies along our route. As we neared Gallipoli we began to see concrete bunkers embedded in the hillsides. They were much smaller that the ones we saw in Normandy, but there seemed to be in very good condition, not graffiti or damage that we could see.


We stopped in Gallipoli, the site of the famous WWI battle to secure a sea lane to Russia. There we took a ferry across the Dardanelles and on to the site of the famous city of Troy.

There are many ruins partially excavated here. The exploration was the result of the fascination of a German businessman, Heinrich Schleimann, who desperately wanted to find the site of the legendary city. After much study and evaluation he determined that this site is it. Using the description of the two rivers and the mouth of the Dardanelles he began excavating here in the 1860s. He discovered 7 cities built at this site.
There is a huge wooden horse there for kids to climb up and peek out of, just like the soldiers, but it doesn't look anything like I imagine it should.

After the visit we continued by bus to Canakkale where we will spend the night.

MORE PICTURES OF DARDANELLES TO TROY