Trip to Çanakkale and Assos

Last weekend we went as a group on an overnight trip to Çanakkale and Assos, which are west from Bursa near the Aegean sea.

We met at the language school at 5:30 in the morning and travelled across the Turkish countryside for hours. The ride, passing farms and small towns, was quite scenic.




Our path often ran parallel to the Sea of Marmara.




After about 5 hours, we took a ferry boat across the sea, taking us back to the European side of Turkey. This was taken from the boat.



Our first stop was Gallipoli, the site of a protracted battle during WWI. We visited a small museum and then both Australian and Turkish cemeteries. The first of these was taken at a Turkish graveyard; the second is a statue of Ataturk at the site of one of his early victories during the battle.





We then went south to the entrance from the Aegean to the Dardanelles, where a giant monument and even more graves and memorials now stand. Here's sea traffic entering the straits.



We crossed back over to Asian side and visited the ruins of what they have decided is the historic Troy. Apparently, a number of cities were built on the same site, dating back thousands of years and archaeologists have uncovered traces from distinct Hittite, Greek and Roman phases. Unfortunately the site itself is pretty unimpressive, marred even further by an attempt to tie it in to the Troy of myth (including a giant wooden horse near the entrance). It doesn't get much more interesting than what you get in this picture, which has a sign with the name of the city during first Greek, then Hittite times in the foreground. I found the surrounding countryside much more beautiful and alluring.




We spent the night in the town of Çanakkale, and after a visit to a Naval Museum there, we continued on the next day to Assos, another city dating to ancient Greek times. The Aegean countryside was quite beautiful and those of you in California will be pleased to know that the climate and landscape sort of resembled the Golden State.



The city of Assos, the site of an academy run by Aristotle and also visted by St. Paul, is built on a hill that has spectacular views of both the surrounding country side and the Aegean. While much of the city is old, dating probably to Ottoman times, the Acropolis at the top is the oldest, featuring the site of an old temple and also the best views.





After Assos, we spent a few hours at an Aegean beach, dropped in at a museum devoted to olive oil and visited an ancient hilltop altar to Zeus (now almost all gone), which featured like most of the area amazing views. We then returned home after quite the exhausting weekend.