40 09.129N 026 24.263E Canakkale, Turkey

Pipedream
Sat 7 May 2011 19:03
Still in Canakkale but will try to leave tomorrow morning if the weather is good. Our next stop will depend on how much progress we can make against the 3 kt current out of Canakkale. It gradually diminishes down to 1 kt at the Sea of Marmara end of the Dardanelles but that is about 15 miles from here so it could be another really long day... We saw a plaque in Troy that said the wind made the city great. There were only 14 days a year between May and September when the wind shifted and blew from the south allowing boats of the era even with oars to sail up the Dardanelles. They would anchor around Troy at the mouth of the straights and wait for the wind to change. and row like crazy against the current

We took the Domish (mini-bus) into Troy (Truva) yesterday and I at least enjoyed it more than I had expected. While waiting for the bus we discovered the market here in Canakkale. (on Fridays) It is about twice the size of Kemers. We stopped on the way back and stocked up for the next week. The bus ride to Troy took about 30 minutes. Lush rolling farm land that reminded me of south western Wisconsin. Wheat planted in olive orchards right under the trees. Well tended fields and very green not like southern Turkey.

We got to Troy and there was yet another Trojan horse setting at the entrance. The overall impression is of lots of half excavated walls. It turns out that there were 38 different civilizations built on top of each other at the site. George who was always looking for the reuse of building materials in these places would have loved it!! One of the coolest exhibits had a deep excavation (hole in the ground) starting with the earliest walls at the bottom on bed rock about 3000 BC and showing about 6 different evolutions of the city ending around the Roman era when the town was know as Ileum. The ancient solution for urban renewal...

Today we took a tour of the Gallipoli battle field. During WWI the Turks held of a combined English, Australian, New Zeeland and French force trying to take control of the shipping routes to Russia and the Black Sea by out 'Generaling ' them care of Lt Colonel K Attiturk - Turkey's equivalent to George Washington and Abe Lincoln put together. Lots of monuments and head stones from both sides. There are many areas where the trenches dough by the armies are complete with rusting barbed wire still in place. Great views of the Dardanelles and the Aegean side of the Gallipoli peninsula.

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