TURKEY: CANAKKALE AND TROY

 June 25, 2026

It isn't very far from Istanbul to Çanakkale, a seaport city in northwestern Turkey on the Dardanelles Strait where it connects to the Aegean Sea. Çanakkale is the main base for visits to the ruins of the ancient city of Troy.

Visitors arriving via the marina are greeted by this impossible-to-miss version of the Trojan horse, a key figure in the epic poem the Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil. There is no archaeological evidence that a giant wooden horse was ever built and/or used to trick the Trojans during wars that occurred around the late 13th or early 12th century BC. However, Virgil's story about a giant wooden horse, written more than 1,000 years after the war, has been passed down for over 2,000 years and has helped preserve the memory the Trojan War.

According to legend, the war was started by the abduction of a beautiful woman, Helen of Troy. But the Greeks were also interested in Troy's wealth, and after fighting for ten years and failing to conquer the city, they came up with a devious plan of hiding soldiers inside a large wooden horse and leaving the horse in front of the city gates, then supposedly sailing away in their ships. The next morning, the Trojans wheeled the horse inside the city walls and began celebrating their victory. After everyone got drunk and felll asleep, the Greeks climbed out of the horse, opened the city gates, and let in their army, which had not sailed away after all. The Greeks plundered the city and set it on fire. The story is retold in the American movie Troy (2004), starring Brad Pitt as the Greek hero Achilles. This model horse was used in that movie and has been on display in the marina since 2004.

Çanakkale has certainly figured out how to capitalize on Virgil's Trojan horse story. Without it, the city might not be quite as popular a tourist destination as it is now.

Of course, Homer also wrote about the Trojan War around 750 BC, long before Virgil did, but Homer made only a brief mention of the Trojan horse in The Odyssey and not at all in The Iliad, which tells the story of the final year of the Trojan War. Still, Homer's writing was probably enough to immortalize the 10-year conflict between the Greek states and the city of Troy.

Hmmm. I wonder if that cat on the food cart below is another attempt by the Greeks to infiltrate Troy? Or maybe it is just a guard cat, keeping an eye on the business--a food cart selling "sweet corn in a cup." Too bad it was closed.

No great loss. We found something much better than corn in a cup.

Near the entrance  to the Troy archaelogical site, we came across a much different but just as large rendition of the Trojan horse. Visitors can actually climb inside this one! Look carefully and you'll see the stairs in between the front and back legs. This 41-foot-tall horse was designed in 1975 by Turkish architect Isset Senemoğlu.

The archaelogical site of Troy was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. The city, with its strategic location at the end of the Dardenelle Strait, was founded around 3,000 BC but frequently destroyed and rebuilt during its 4,000 years of settlement, and archaelogists have identified at least nine layers of civilization at the site that they have numbered Troy I - Troy IX. Serious excavation work began here in 1871 and continues to this day. 

Wooden walkways give tourists a path through the ruins.

I was a little surprised that Troy was surrounded on at least a couple of sides by farmland.

Helpful information signs written in Turkish and English are sprinkled throughout the site.

Direction signs like this, also written in Turkish and English, are helpful as well.

There are treasures everywhere if you know where to look (or if your guide points them out to you). Look at the carving on the end of this big rock that was probably part of a structure.

This is a fragment from the ceiling in the Temple of Athena from the Troy IX era (85 BC to 500 AD).

One of the larger ruins is the Citadel Wall from the Troy II/III period (2550 BC - 1700 BC). The roof was added in 2003. It protects the ruins but also represents the rounded form of the mound before excavation.

The protective covering also looks a little like a sail, appropriate for this waterfront kingdom.

Another structure under the same billowing roof is a building made of mudbricks just inside the fortification walls. Experts think it had some kind of ceremonial purpose. 

One of the more famous excavation sites of Troy is the so-called "Schliemann's Trench," a 56-foot-deep and 130-foot-wide slash cut into the site between 1871 and 1890 by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who believed that Homer's Troy lay underneath a large mound that was here. He did find a massive hoard of bold and bronze artifacts dating to around 2400 BC, but he destroyed the actual layer that corresponds to Homer's Troy in the process.

This is part of what is thought to be the Troy Palace compound from the Troy VI era (1750 BC - 1300 BC).

It was a common practice to build houses against the citadel walls, as seen earlier.

In Greek and Roman times, Troy was an important religious center. This is the Sanctuary, built as early at the 8th century BC and remaining in use through the rest of Troy's active existence. There are multiple limestone altars and ritual pits.

I love the red poppies, even though they are more or less weeds in this area. For me they will always be a symbol of remembrance because of their association with fallen soldiers in World War I.

My favorite structure in Troy--and probably the best preserved/reconstructed, is the Odeion, a small theater used for cultural performances, lectures, and civic meetings during Troy's later periods.

I think this might be, or at least is near, what was once the South Gate, represented in an artist's rendering below my photograph.  

I'm calling this the Archaeology Graveyard--the place they put fragments while they try to decide what to do with them.

It was time to return to the ship. That's it on the right: the Viking Vesta.  

If you've been on a cruise, you know that there is usually a great welcome committee waiting for you at the end of the day. This dancing group of crew members had music blaring, damp wash cloths ready for wiping our hands and faces, and cold juice.

They didn't have ice cream, though. We had to go upstairs to the restaurant for that.

I did not know until writing this post that in addition to being the home of the ruins of Troy, Çanakkale is also the location of the cemeteries of the First World War Battle of Gallipoli, aka the Dardenelles Campaign. It started in February 1915 and continued through January 1916. The Allies were attempting to take control of the Dardenelle Strait in an effort to force the Ottoman Empire to surrender. After both sides had approximately 250,000 casualties each, the Allied powers withdrew.  One of my favorite movies (and one of Bob's least favorite) is Gallipoli, a 1981 Australian film starring Mel Gibson that tells the story of this campaign. It has a plot similar to Chariots of Fire--two young men meet and become friends on the battlefield, one is a runner, and the story ends in tragedy.

The movie was the feature being shown on the upper deck as we sailed awaay from Çanakkale. It was almost surreal to watch it while we were surrounded by luxury--lawn chairs, drinks and snacks, warm blankets. Even after 45 years, it is still a powerful movie.

Next up: Rhodes