Troy & Kusadasi

We visited the ancient city of Troy – y’all know the story, I’m sure 🙂 But in case you don’t …

The name Troy refers both to a place in legend and a real-life archaeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon.

Troy also refers to a real ancient city located on the northwest coast of Turkey which, since antiquity, has been identified by many as being the Troy discussed in the legend. Whether the Trojan War actually took place, and whether the site in northwest Turkey is the same Troy, is a matter of debate. The modern-day Turkish name for the site is Hisarlik (Source: https://www.livescience.com/38191-ancient-troy.html). If you want the unabridged version, you can click here.

They are still in the process of excavating as there is a lot to unearth. Each time the city was destroyed, they built the new one on top, so there are around nine “layers” of the city. Deciphering one “layer” from another, is a pretty tricky business.

After Troy, we drove onto Kusadasi – the port where we arrived by ferry 26 years ago and where our VW camper was impounded in the port for the night – but that’s another story!

We arrived close to sunset and dinner, so no time to see where we had spent our first night in Turkey (in 1994). Maybe my memory fails me (as if!) or maybe there has just been significant growth in the last quarter century, but I don’t remember the town being so big. Unfortunately we left early the next morning for Ephesus … so no free time in Kusadasi which was disappointing but it still has beautiful sunsets over the ocean.