Disappointing Troy

A few years ago I was within an hour of visiting the famous town of Troy before being talked out of it by a disappointed tourist who had just come from there.

Troy is one of the most famous cities in history, its legendary siege made famous by Homer’s Iliad. It disappeared for many years, as besieged towns tended to do over time, but was eventually unearthed by a crazy German who bulldozed his way through the strata of artifacts instead of gingerly picking away with a toothbrush.

The end result, from a tourist perspective, is that there is really not too much to see. Robert Crew, writing for The Star, recently returned from Turkey (site of the Troy remains) and agrees. The village of Hisarlik (30 minutes from Canakkale, Turkey) sports a recreated Trojan Horse (apparently very hokey) and not much else.

The true joy, it appears, is looking across the landscape and imagining what had happened on that very spot so many years ago.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the Brad Pitt movie Troy was filmed in Mexico and Malta so if you venture this far, don’t expect things to look like they did in the film.