Day 19 - Istanbul to Canakkale

24 April 2023

Today we drove along the European side of the Sea of Marmara for over three and a half hours, before crossing over to the Asian continent at the top of the Dardenelles Strait via a very big and fancy bridge that has only been open for 2 years. The new motorway and the bridge were built assuming there would be 45,000 vehicles per day and that it would pay for itself through the tolls. Currently there are only about 4,000 vehicles a day using it, but the contractor doesn’t mind because the government had agreed to top up any shortfall for the first 15 years. Bonus for us was that we got to drive on a basically deserted motorway in perfect condition, three lanes each way. I feel sorry for all of the service centres who had no customers (but huge carparks), and for the taxpayers who are footing the bill.

We arrived at Ҫanakkale for a two hour lunch break. This is a city on the banks of the Dardenelles Strait and, judging from all of the Australians there, is the place to stay before the ANZAC dawn service. The Trojan horse from the Brad Pitt movie of Troy is found on the waterfront. At Troy itself there is another replica of the Trojan horse, but it is smaller and more artistic. The artist who created it is still living, so the plan is to move the movie set one out to Troy once the artist is no longer around. Ҫanakkale was a city full of shops and restaurants and had a real ‘sea side’ vibe. There was a high presence of police and security personnel, probably due to ANZAC day.

 

At Canakkale. Top left is the horse from the movie Troy.

It was very interesting visiting Troy. Currently, only about 10% has been excavated but there is still plenty to look at. After visiting Scotland, it was obvious to see that more can be done to encourage the tourist dollar and to make the experience more interactive and informative. It seemed like broadwalks had been put along with some signage, but there was so much that we would have missed if it wasn’t for our tour guide, Levent. Saying that, it was still amazing to be at Troy and to see evidence of over 4000 years of civilization. The evidence shows that Troy was destroyed many times over its life time, but contrary to stories of sieges and warfare, it was probably due to earthquakes.

 

Troy. The top left photo shows the Roman wall in front, with an older wall behind. Interesting to see the contrast in building techniques. Middle left photo shows a curved wall. This wall let attackers into a narrow passage with a right angle, where they were attacked. Bottom right photo shows a Roman road with houses on the side.

Early to bed tonight because we are on the bus at 11:30pm to head over to ANZAC cove for the dawn service at 5:30am and then the 8 km uphill walk to Chunuk Bair for the NZ service at 11:30am. Not much sleep tonight.