Troy also known as Ilium – Travel Essay

 Troy is a city of legend.  Most people had felt that the Trojan War was a figment of imagination. Heinrich Schleimann, a lover of Greece and Homeric poetry decided to dig in northwestern Turkey near the Dardenelles.  Frank Calvert had made test holes in a hill called Hissarlik.  Frank Calvert recommended that Heinrich Schleimann (HS) dig on Hissarlik.  HS was vindicated and the field of archaeology was born.  Excavations are ongoing.

Any trip to Troy will bring life long memories. The battlements on which Helen of Troy watched as the Greeks and Trojans fought below.  The Scamander river flowing through the area.  Where Patroclus tried three times to climb the  angled walls.  A memory of where Athena told the Greeks to attack the weak spot in the circuit.  See the ‘Tomb of Ajax’, where Ajax killed himself nearby maddened by the dispute over Achilles armor.  Where Achilles chased Hector (the Trojan Champion) around the citadel three times before Hector turned to fight and was killed.  The site of the remains of The Dardanian Gate, the Scaean Gate, and the Great Eastern Bastion.  The site of the rampart where Andromache tried to throw herself to the ground when the Trojans were losing the battle.  The hiding place from where Paris shot the poisoned arrow that killed Achilles.

Sources: The Iliad, In Search of the Trojan War, Wikipedia, Funk & Wagnalls & Internet.