The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1923-01-03

prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington. d. c.
Within "the Zone Of the Straits"-the
strip of land bordering the Darda-
nelles, the Bosphorus and the Aegean
sea, whose international control Is
likely to be altered somewhat by re-
vision of the treaty Of Sevres-lies the
subject of one of the worlds greatest
epics: Troy. where two nations
fought for the fair Helen.
The Trojan walls, unvisited by the
idle tourist, are still In evidence;
those same walls that defled the on
slaughts of Agamemnon and Menelaus,
of Ajax, Nestor, Diomed. Ulysses and
Achilles, to fall at last by stratagem.
They remained as q ruined and aban-
doned stage minus Its paraphernalia,
wherein was played so many centuries
ago an insignificant little drama com
pared with modern events; but 1t was
O drama 30 big with human interest
divinely told that the world has never
known its equal.
To be sure, 1t was all In the telling;
and what would Troy have been with
out It's Homer? Still, as the theater
Of the worlds greatest epic poem, 1t
deserves q visit any year. every year.
In the thoughts and emotions 1t re-
wives and stimulates, In the aroused
sense of Indebtedness of all subse-
ouent literature and art. 1t richly re-
pays a visit. The classical student
will leave 1t In daze of meditation
upon things more real TO him than the
actual things he has seen and touched.
In visiting the ruins Of Troy, one
sets out from the village OF Darda-
neIles for q five hours hot and dusty
ride.
After a couple of hours travel
through the plain the road grows
rougher and begins TO ascend into billy
country. The traveller realizes that he
should be nearing historic ground
now and he glances around the horizon
TO see If he can identify Mt. Ida, and
toward the sea for a first sight OF
,Senedos but no, this is only common
soil. Rounding the summit of the next
rise one sees the road leading down
into Eren Koui Turkish village,
convenient halting place for coffee.
Then the road begins to wind through
the village In gradual descent until
IL makes a sudden jerky little turn
into the open country, and beholdl the
plain of Troy; not the plain of the his
toric action, but the drainage area
which includes Troy.
To the Hill of IIium.
The road leads straight toward a
ridge in the distance, the Hill OF
nium," at the lower point Of which
will presently appear the ruins. 1t
was down that Identical ridge, or so
one tells oneself that the angry god,
Apollo. strobe toward vengeance,
while the arrows in the culver on his
shoulder changed in ominous music.
Yonder the summit of Mt. Ida. where
the gods in solemn conclave so often
sat. Away over there, skirting the
ridge of Ilium, Is Simois' stream, or
should be; but the bridge across it
shows upon approach that modern
Simois Is no more than creek. Worse
than that; following Its attenuated
course, less than a mile downstream,
one dIscovers that 1t ends In a morass
instead of joining the Scamander as OF
wore. And the latter stream is scarce
" less disappointing, for 1t is no more |
tiIgnified in size or appearance. In |
'act their sluggish currents united can |
boast of banks except at oc-
,asional intervals, for both streams
ire now only broad swales merging |
With the adjacent plain, with no con-
innous current toward the sea except |
n seasons of high water, If such are
,ver known.
BEHOLD the ruins ut lastl A long,
ow ridge, some four or five miles In
ength. ends abruptly like promon-
DRY projecting into the sea, above
vhich II rises about 80 feet. The ridge
, the so-called .Hill of Ilium," the
"a is the fioodplain of the Simois and
historically known as the
lain of Troy. and the promontory,
nth its crown Of ruins, is Troy Itself.
on walk around the ruins and make
he surprising discovery that II the
,alking were good yoS sta'd easily