Eastern Turkey: Çanakkale to Kuşadası

"Heinrich Schliemann, the German archaeologist, was in Turkey in the late 19th century on an eccentric quest. He was excavating a tell—an artificial mound that covers long abandoned settlements. The site, known as Hisarlik, was familiar to only a few specialists. But as Schliemann dug, he was pinning his hopes on finding the ruins of the most famous city in classical literature: Troy. The trouble was that Troy might not even have existed....was Troy a real place?"

Hisarlik has been recognized as being Troy since ancient times and is actually 9-10 layers deep.  Each time the city was destroyed they would expand and rebuild on top of the old one, creating a man-made mound known in archaeological circles as a "tell".  "Scholars have noted that the topography of Troy as told in the legend does seem to generally match that of the real-life city and....people as far back as Homer's time also believed this to be Troy."  Despite taking an archaeology class in college (at Saints Bible Institute), our visit to the remains wasn't the highlight of my day.  Perhaps I need to have read "The Iliad" to appreciate the site and it's giant replica of the Trojan Horse (built especially for the tourists).

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We drove through Edremit, a famous olive growing region in Turkey, on our way to Pergamum.  Now called Bergama, it was a powerful kingdom in the Hellenistic period and also once a Roman spa center.  "The Asklepion is a famed ancient medical center built in honor of Asklepios, the god of healing. It was also the world's first psychiatric hospital."

According to signs at the site "We are informed about the several treatment methods from the 'Hieroi Logoi' of Orator Aelius Aristides.  The applied treatment methods include accompanying the patients (with psychological problems) in the sleeping rooms to incubation and interpreting dreams by priest doctors (treatment with inspirational conditioning); hot, cold, and mud baths, treatment with healing herbs, diet treatments, massages, blood letting, emptying of the intestines and sunbathing for physical illnesses.  Also, when deemed necessary, surgical operations used to be applied".  They were quite advanced for their day it seemed and had some big-name patients (Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Caracalla).  Regardless, this site was more photogenic so I enjoyed it a bit more.

Our lunch stop was at Sağlam Restaurant where the owner gave us a little Turkish serenade during our meal.  The food here in Turkey is very cheap (partially due to the exchange rate).  From there we drove through Izmir, ancient Smyrna, on our way to Kuşadası for the evening (believed to be the birthplace of Homer).  The KoruMar Hotel was lovely and had one of the biggest dinner buffets I've ever seen!  We didn't arrive until about 8pm so it was a bit too late to fully enjoy the meal selection, but everything I tasted was superb.