Troy

I visited this WHS in Spring 2021. The vast majority of this site are ruins and foundations of old buildings. There are no "iconic" buildings here, in fact the only "iconic" aspect of the site is the modern Trojan Horse just after the entrance which seems like a playground for children and adults alike (the one used for the film starring Brad Pitt is along the Canakkale waterfront). That said, the highlight of this site are its superimposed strata marked as Troy I-IX.

Why does Troy have so many superimposed strata? The settlement mound of Hisarlik comes into being through a combination of circumstances. First of all its favourable position caused it to be reoccupied time and again over more than 3,000 years. Secondly, sundried mudbrick was largely used for building the walls of houses. Mudbricks, scarcely known in Europe, are the normal building material in the Near East. When rebuilding took place, the earlier mudbricks were of no value and buildings of the preceding phase were always levelled. Thus the succession of settlements gradually formed an enormous mound.

Within this mound archaeologists could distinguish finds and structures that are most recent (in the higher strata) from those that are earlier (in the lower strata). The many layers of settlement and the associated finds can be grouped in broad chronological periods or phases. Halfway through the very well organised audio tour (if you want to skip the audio tour there are several information boards in English) on the …

I visited Troy on the 18th of March 2020 and the place was almost empty. It was an emotional visit. I had been traveling for almost three years now and the evening before I had made a decision to return home. In the week before it had become clear that Turkey was not immune for covid19 either and nothing could be taken for granted anymore. Will the public transport still run? Will the site be open? Will they close the hotels? Troy would be the last visit on my travel and I did not know when I would be able to travel again.

Troy is not very big and I could imagine how different it would be full of tour groups and tourists, but today I could imagine myself a Schliemann, as if discovering the place for the first time. I felt sad that all this beauty would be closed soon for an undetermined period of time. Troy as a civilization was sacked many times but our civilization nowadays is so rich and sophisticated that we are able to open this history to anyone who is interested in it, and on this day it was very clear how extraordinary this is.

The museum is magnificent too, it honors both the history of Troy and the Turkish national pride. The presentation is fresh and modern though in a few parts it felt the building is a bit too big for the exhibition.

I visited Troy in July 2018. Despite the fame, legend and mythical side of the site, I remember it as a rather banal archaeological site. I was taking part in an organised trip through Turkey and we made a stop in Troy on the road between Selçuk (Ephesus) and Çanakkale (we were travelling with private transport for this part of the journey). The guide who followed us during the whole trip also acted as a guide for the visit of the archaeological site.

Troy is surrounded by an aura of mystery and legend. It is an extremely ancient site of settlement of human civilizations. However, today, it is difficult to separate facts and legends. For example, we do not know how much of Homer's stories are true and how much are fiction. I admit that this aspect makes the site a little less interesting for me. As much as I love history (the facts!), spirituality and mythology leave me cold.

The site itself is rather small and has no remarkable structure. It is a series of stone and brick walls, without much personality or artistic value. The city, as is often the case, has expanded by building on the structures of the previous city, creating a succession of several layers (nine in this case). Nevertheless, the fact remains that a 4500-year-old brick does not differ much from a contemporary brick, and impresses me very little when the structure it formed has long since disappeared. The oldest parts are …

Troy is perhaps one of the most iconic sites, not because of the ruins but because its legendary place in history and literature. It is a good moment to visit Troy again. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Troy becoming a UNESCO site the new Troy Museum was opened in 2018, and has quickly acquired the reputation of one of the best museums in Turkey if not in Europe with educational displays, animations, interactive films and simulations. We visited in January 2020, and we had the entire Museum to ourselves, same was at the Troy archaeological site, the historic setting of the Trojan War as eternalised by Homer in the Iliad. The weather was gorgeous, a bit cold but sunny with a deep blue sky; the view was great from the Museum’s roof top across the archaeological site; and all the way to Mount Ida from where the gods were watching the Trojan War and the island of Tenedos where the Greek ships were hiding before the city fell; and in the distance, across the Scamander plains and the entrance to the Dardanelles, the glittering snow covered mountains of Samothrace. 

The Museum is built as a cube, construction started in 2013, and was completed in 2018. It reaches the height of the pre-excavation hill of Hisarlık, the modern name of the Troy site and is meant to resemble an artefact that was excavated. The building’s outside walls are made of steel that are meant to put on …

A visit to the site of Troy was a highlight of our trip to Turkey. The local guide was quite knowledgeable and the site is well marked for understanding the various levels of the nine "Troys" including the siege of Troy 6 or 7 which inspired the foremost classic of western literature.

As other reviews have said the jumble of 9 different settlements makes it hard to work out what is what. It helps if you have read the story of the first excavations. The site has a number of very helpful boards explaining what you are looking at. The wooden horse is kitsch - the nearby town of Canakkale has the one from the movie, which is more impressive but you can't climb inside it.

The greatest thing - to have stood on the same ground as KIng Priam and Achilles!

Visited in 2000.

The site is not very big, but is well worth a visit if you have an interest in Troy. The site is a bit of a jumble, as Heinrich Schleimann's excavation was hodgepodge, so it's worth it to get a map. The Trojan horse is pretty kitschy, but a fun photo op.

For WWI buffs, it's worth it to stay in Canukkale to combine a visit to Gallipoli as well.

This archeological site which is assumed to be Troy named in Illiad of Homeros, actually is not one ancient city. Instead it is the ruins of at least 9 different settlements built one on the top of the other, dating back to early bronze ages.

Although there is not much to see for someone who is not interested in the history and the myths; for anyone interested, this site represents a chance to take a glimpse to the wound of modern western civilization on the green skirts of Mount Ida.

The Archeological Museum of Canakkale gives a chance to view some of the ancient artifacts taken from the site.

The old road to Assos might be a focus of atraction cutting through the ruins of more that 20 ancient settlements predating Christ; in addition Gallipoli, with the monuments and other traces of the well-known epic drama of World War II.