According to Homer’s description of the Trojan territory, it combined
certain prominent and remarkable features, not likely to be affected by
any lapse of time. Of this nature was the Hellespont; the island of
Tenedos; the plain itself; the river by whose inundations it was
occasionally overflowed; and the mountain whence that river issued. The
following is an abstract of Dr. Clarke’s accurate account of the
vestiges of high antiquity contained in this truly classic spot.
“We entered an immense plain, in which some Turks were engaged in
hunting wild-boars. Peasants were also employed in plowing a deep and
rich soil of vegetable earth. Proceeding toward the east, and round the
bay distinctly pointed out by Strabo as the harbor in which the Grecian
fleet was stationed, we arrived at the sepulcher of Ajax, upon the
ancient Rhœtean promontory. The view here afforded of the Hellespont and
the plain of Troy is one of the finest the country affords. From the
_Aianteum_ we passed over a heathy country to Halil Elly, a village near
the Thymbrius, in whose vicinity we had been instructed to seek the
remains of a temple once sacred to the Thymbrean Apollo. The ruins we
found were rather the remains of ten temples than of one. The earth to a
very considerable extent was covered by subverted and broken columns of
marble, granite, and of every order in architecture. Doric, Ionic and
Corinthian capitals lay dispersed in all directions, and some of these
were of great beauty. We observed a bass-relief representing a person on
horseback pursued by a winged figure; also a beautiful representation,
sculptured after the same manner, of Ceres in her car drawn by two scaly
serpents.
“At the town or village of Tchiblack, we noticed very considerable
remains of ancient sculpture, but in such a state of disorder and ruin,
that no precise description of them can be given. The most remarkable
are upon the top of a hill called Beyan Mezaley, near the town, in the
midst of a beautiful grove of oak-trees, toward the village of Callifat.
Here the ruins of a Doric temple of white marble lay heaped in the most
striking manner, mixed with broken stelæ, cippi, sarcophagi, cornices
and capitals of very enormous size, entablatures and pillars. All of
these have reference to some peculiar sanctity by which this hill was
anciently characterized. We proceeded hence toward the plain; and no
sooner reached it, than a tumulus of very remarkable size and situation
drew our attention, for a short time, from the main object of our
pursuit. This tumulus, of a high conical form and very regular
structure, stands altogether insulated. Of its great antiquity no doubt
can be entertained by persons accustomed to view the everlasting
sepulchers of the ancients. On the southern side of its base is a long
natural mound of limestone: this, beginning to rise close to the
artificial tumulus, extends toward the village of Callifat, in a
direction nearly from north to south across the middle of the plain. It
is of such hight that an army encamped on the eastern side of it, would
be concealed from all observation of persons stationed on the coast, by
the mouth of the Mender. If the poems of Homer, with reference to the
plain of Troy, have similarly associated an artificial tumulus and a
natural mound, a conclusion seems warranted, that these are the objects
to which he alludes. This appears to be the case in the account he has
given of the _tomb of Ilus_ and the _mound of the plain_. From this tomb
we descended into the plain, when our guides brought us to the western
side of it, near its southern termination, to notice a tumulus, less
considerable than the last described, about three hundred paces from the
mound, almost concealed from observation by being continually
overflowed, upon whose top two small oak-trees were then growing.
“We now came to an elevated spot of ground, surrounded on all sides by a
level plain, watered by the Callifat Osmack, and which there is every
reason to believe the _Simoisian_. Here we found, not only the traces,
but also the remains of an ancient citadel. Turks were then employed
raising enormous blocks of marble, from foundations surrounding the
place; possibly the identical works constructed by Lysimachus, who
fenced New Ilium with a wall. All the territory within these foundations
was covered by broken pottery, whose fragments were parts of those
ancient vases now held in such high estimation. Many Greek medals had
been discovered in consequence of the excavations made there by the
Turks. As these medals, bearing indisputable legends to designate the
people by whom they were fabricated, have also, in the circumstances of
their discovery, a peculiar connection with the ruins here, they may be
considered as indicating, with tolerable certainty, the situation of the
city to which they belonged. These ruins evidently appear to be the
remains of New Ilium; whether we regard the testimony afforded by their
situation, as accordant with the text of Strabo, or the discovery there
made of medals of the city.”
The conclusions relative to Troas, drawn by this learned writer, are as
follows. “That the river Mender is the Scamander of Homer, Strabo, and
Pliny. The _amnis navigabilis_ of Pliny flows into the archipelago, to
the south of Sigeum. That the Aianteum, or tomb of Ajax, still remains,
answering the description given of its situation by ancient authors, and
thereby determining also the exact position of the naval station of the
Greeks. That the Thymbrius is yet recognized, both in its present
appellation _Thymbreck_, and in its geographical position. That the
spacious plain lying on the north-eastern side of the Mender, and
watered by the Callifat Osmack, is the Simoisian, and that stream the
Simois. That the ruins of Palaio Callifat are those of the Ilium of
Strabo. Eastward is the Throsmos, or mound of the plain. That Udjek Tepe
is the tomb of Æsyetes. The other tombs mentioned by Strabo, as at
Sigeum, are all in the situation he describes. That the springs of
Bonarbashy may possibly have been the ‘_Doiai Pelai_’ of Homer; but they
are not sources of the Scamander. They are, moreover, _warm_ springs.
That the source of the Scamander is in Gargarus, now called _Kasdaghy_,
the highest mountain of all the Idæan chain. That the altars of Jupiter,
mentioned by Homer, and by Eschylus, were on the hill called Kuchunlu
Tepe, at the foot of Gargarus; where the ruins of the temple now remain.
That Palae Scepsis is yet recognized in the appellation Esky Skupshu;
that Æna is the Ainei of Strabo; and Æne Tepe, perhaps, the tomb of
Æneas. That the extremity of the Adramyttian gulf inclines round the
ridge of Gargarus, toward the north-east; so that the circumstance of
Xerxes having this mountain upon his left, in his march from Antandrus
to Abydus, is thereby explained. And lastly, that Gargarus affords a
view, not only of all the plain of Troy, but of all the district of
Troas, and a very considerable portion of the rest of Asia Minor.”