Assos Turkey. Via Tauri. Alexander Troas.
This morning we hiked through the steep village around the archeological site of Assos. We had to be content with pictures and viewing from the gate as the site was not open. Since we had a little extra time, we went back to the Via Tauri road Paul walked and did some more filming. There is a quaint little village near there and we all sat at the crossroads at a small market and had a 10am breakfast of the best ice cream ever!
We then took back country roads to get further up the Aegean coast to the site of Alexandria Troas. Our driver even had to leave the bus at one point to shepherd some sheep off the road. This site has had very little excavation but has some enticing arches and tall city pillars exposed. There have been recent rock falls unfortunately and so we had to take care at this site. Paul was in Troas with Silas and Timothy when he was inspired to go to Macedonia. Paul was also in Troas prior to his return journey to Jerusalem on the third missionary journey.
Alexandria Troas had a large important harbor at the time of Paul and the early Christian church. We walked the beach in that area and some ancient pylons and roads are still visible, also a harbor wall. After our walk we had a wonderful grilled lunch on the beach from a local vendor.
At the end of the day we crossed the Dardanelles by large ferry and are now about a 4 hour drive around the Northwest side of the Marmara Sea to Istanbul.
