Troy

From Canakkale we visited Troy on our way to Pergamon.

Canakkale had an excellent museum which housed a coastal fort and some awesome Ataturk artwork.

This is a replica of the mine-layer that planted the mines that thwarted British attempts to take Istanbul by sea during WWI.

Inside was an awesome indepth presentation of the battle for the straights which consisted of a beautifully crafted terrain model with light effects for the shelling of the coast and a video screen for the water showing where the ships and mines were.

Of course Troy has a replica Trojan horse.

Troy ruins actually consists of nine different cities built on top of one another. Troy VII is thought to be the Homeric Troy.

Troy was discovered during an expedition funded by German businessman Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s. Schliemann excavated the ruins poorly, but found a cache of gold known as Priam's Treasure. Schliemann smuggled some of the treasure out of Turkey back to Germany, where the Soviets eventually got a hold of it during WWII. Russia now refuses to give back to Turkey what it claims to be "war reparations from Germany;"  the treasure is now housed in the Pushkin Museum. Above is a picture of Schliemann's daughter wearing the treasure.

Troy kittens!