The best Trojan Horse by far is at the port, on the promenade. It is the one from the movie Troy starring Bradd Pitt and Eric Bana. It stands proud and unmissable as you walk along the seafront.
The hospitality that the wonderful people offer is enchanting, and we were invited into a small art centre and given a personal piano recital. Çanakkale is a student town and is therefore young and vibrant. It is an ideal place for a holiday as it offers the Museum and the Ruins of Ancient Troy.
There is a model of Troy VI near the Trojan Horse.
It takes about 20 minutes by shuttle bus to get from the new Kepez cruise port and the film shows you where it drops you off and how to find the main things.
The battlefield memorials are a ferry away and it is a long day. Troy is a ruin site that has many steps and is exposed in the heat, so this is the easy version. But, you can easily do the port and one of the other trips with some planning.
One of the most important events in Greek mythology, the Trojan War was an attack on the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, King of Sparta. The movie Troy starring Brad Pitt and Eric Bana is based on a tale first written down in the epic poem The Iliad, written by the Greek author Homer in about 750 BC. In short, the Greeks give the Trojans a parting gift, a large Wooden Horse. It is taken inside the city walls and the Trojans (People from Troy) party. When they are drunk and asleep, the many Greeks come out from inside the horse and attack them. The rest of the army was hiding on an island nearby, thought to have sailed away. The Trojan Horse may be fictional, but Troy is a real place and there were many battles there.
A Bronze Age city buried beneath a huge mound in northwest Turkey is thought to be the ancient city of Troy because gold treasures were found there in 1868. They were thought to be the gold of Priam, the King of Troy. However in the mad rush to dig the gold, they almost ruined the clues in the dig. The gold went to Russia and has never been returned, and it was from the wrong age. Although 6km inland, in that period the Aegean Sea went that far in, so the city was on the coast near the Dardanelles Strait and directly across from Greece. It is the right size for Troy, with about 10,000 inhabitants. Since 3000 BC nine different cities have been there. The one that fits the time in Homer’s poem is known as Layer Six and dates to around 1250 BC. The city by the sea is also close to the island of Tenedos, said to be where the rest of the Greek Army hid when they pretended to sail away. It is also close to Mount Ida, where, in the story, the gods Zeus and Hera sat and watched the Trojan War unfold.
Many weapons have been found at the dig of the city whose walls were five metres thick and nine metres high, with towering gateposts. So, there were definitely battles there. The last people to occupy this area were the Romans, up to about 500 AD.
The ruins are in Kumkale some 40 minutes from Kepez Port. The walkways are well built and there is a museum and a model of a huge wooden horse.
Looking at the locally offered attractions and tours is the first thing a movie location scout will do. Here is a collection of locally offered tours to start your research. If we have made a film it will be on our Doris Visits cruise port YOUTUBE channel which is approaching two million views. Any film should be listed here under the port name. Please take a few minutes to watch that too, as we often find gems and explain the local buses as well as hit the highlights.
Local tours (allow time to load) as shown by GET YOUR GUIDE
More tours and excursions will load when you look at the first. Always remember a ship tour offers the protection of waiting for the trip to return if it is running late.
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