Turkey Guide
The North Aegean
Troy
Although by no means the most spectacular archeological site in Turkey, Troy, thanks to Homer, is probably the most celebrated. Known as Truva in Turkish, the remains of the ancient city lie around 20km south of Çanakkale, just west of the main road. It's a scanty affair on the whole, but if you lower your expectations and use your imagination, you may well be impressed. The ruins are now a lot less obscure than previously, with modern scientific methods managing to fill the gaps left by earlier excavations. Recent work has served to clarify the site greatly, to the extent that laypeople can now at least grasp the basic layout and gain a knowledge of the different settlement periods discovered.
The site (daily: May– Sept 8am–7pm; Oct– April 8am–5pm; 10YTL) is signalled by the ticket office – marked "Gişe" – just opposite the dolmuş drop-off point.
Most impressive of the extant remains are the east wall and gate from Troy VI (1700–1275 BC), of which 330m remain, curving around the eastern and southern flanks of the city. The inward-leaning walls, 6m high and over 4m thick, would have been surmounted by an additional brick section. A ramp paved with flat stones from Troy II (2500–2300 BC), which would have led to the citadel entrance, also stands out, as does the nearby partially reconstructed Megaron Building (currently protected beneath a giant canvas roof) from the same era, the bricks of which were turned a bright red when Troy II was destroyed by fire. Schliemann, erroneously as it turned out, used the evidence of this fire to draw the conclusion that this had been Homer's Troy and that the items he discovered here made up Priam's treasure.
The most important monument of Roman Troy IX, or Ilium, is the temple of Athena, which was rebuilt on a promise of Alexander the Great by his general, Lysimachus, after Alexander himself had visited the temple and left his armour as a gift. Remains found by Schliemann proved the temple to be of the Doric order, and fragments of its coffered ceiling can still be seen on site. The most famous relief from the temple, however, depicting Apollo astride four pawing stallions, is now in Berlin. Troy was an important religious centre during Greek and Roman times, and the remains of two other sanctuaries, which were also renovated after the visit of Alexander the Great, can be seen at the westernmost point of the site.
Practicalities
Çanakkale is the most sensible base for seeing Troy. A couple of companies there offer guided tours for around 20YTL and may tell you that there is no dolmuş service to the site. In fact, dolmuşes run every twenty minutes from Çanakkale (from the minibus garage, opposite the fairground on Atatürk Caddesi) to the village of Tefvikiye, which sits at the gates of the site; it's a thirty-minute ride. If you're moving on further south, the best option is to take the Troy– Çanakkale minibus and jump off at the junction with the main road. From here, you can hop on to any passing southbound bus.
There is accommodation in Tevfikiye, in the form of the Hisarlık Hotel ( 
0286/283 0026, 
283 0087; Price: €25-31), just before the ticket office on the road to the site: it has an attached restaurant and bar, and offers guided tours of Troy.