Certain places are so mythical that we can forget they're real. But even if you happen to know exactly where the ancient site of Troy lies, it may come as a surprise just how easy it is to visit these days. A new suspension bridge—the world’s longest—makes all the difference.
Opened just two years ago to take you over the Dardanelles strait from the Gallipoli peninsula to Çanakkale province, the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge (the year honors the WWI Battle of Gallipoli) means skipping a long ferry ride for a much shorter four- or five-hour drive from Istanbul to Troy. It’s all part of Türkiye’s new push to highlight its portion of the pan-Mediterranean Aeneas Route of ancient sites. As you wander over Troy’s 74-acres, you may find it less extensive than you’d expected, considering that it represents effectively ten cities and more than 5,000 years of human settlement.
Still, it’s a lot to pack into one visit and thankfully you can tread over the lumpy terrain on recently built wooden boardwalks, with welcome benches to rest on. From viewing platforms along the 70-foot-high Troy mound, you look over the now broad alluvial plain of the Scamander River delta, a vantage point from which it’s hard to imagine that the sea once used to reach up here a few miles inland. In the distance you’ll spot the tip of Gallipoli peninsula and Tenedos island (Bozcaada in Turkish) where Virgil says the Greeks hid their ships during the Trojan War.
Make it here in spring and you�.
