Troy and Temple of Athena

 Troy

Several pictures of Troy, detailed text to follow.

A detail of the entrance noting the rough stone work to the left and the smoothly cut stone to the right from a later era. Some of the former city is well preserved as the Romans built good quality walls around the site, filled in the streets, levelled it to a plateau and built a Temple to Athena.

A side view of the outer wall, built with a slope for earthquake protection. The top was wood and plaster and vertical so soldiers couldn't scale the walls.

A view of the fields which made the area a rich fertile farming area and the Aegean just beyond. This was originally the beach where the real duel and the film version took place outside the Western Gate before the area silted up. Before it silted up, it was also on several major shipping routes and so was a valueable asset to control. 

Some of the mud bricks behind the plaster at the top of the sloping walls. They are two colours. The original mud brown bricks of the lower courses and the darker red colours of the upper exposed layers which were roasted when the city was burned. 

A detail of one of the gates and the stonework. 

A detail of an information board showing the ten levels of the city. Levels six and seven are those most associated with the Helen of Troy era. There is also a level zero as archaeologists discovered post holes in the bedrock below level one, indicating that there was a town built on stilts, possibly standing in the water.

The flagstone entrance to one of the gates into the city. 

The Odeon.

Outside, there is the museum, a modern rectangular affair of little archaeological merit.

The slope down to the sub ground level entrance.

There are many exhibits on display of those items found inside such as this renovated loom...

...bone and pottery items...

...a giant sacopharcus...

...another view...

...plus maps, plenty of information boards in multiple languages and more shards of non-descript pottery than you can shake a stick at.

Outside there are more exhibits, but few are worth storing indoors as there are so many...

...and yet more.

We left Troy to travel down the coast to our first bush camp.

We stopped em route at Bemluk to see the Temple of Athena.

This is what it is thought to have looked like...

...this is all that is left standing.

There are some other buildings still standing but are not open to the public. It was an expensive visit to pay 585 Turkish lira to stand in blizzard force winds in fierce sunlight. No one stayed long and we were soon driving towards the beach...

...but the view from the top of the hill was stunning. We stopped on the beach for our first bush camp.