The Wooden Horse of Troy : Everybody knows the legend of the "Wooden Horse" of Troy. Troy was a famous city built in the early ages, located near the Hisarli village of Canakkale town. Paris, the handsome son of King Priamos, visited Menelaos, the King of Sparta one day. He seduced the beautiful queen Helena and carried her away to Troy in the dark of night with his ship. Upon that event, King Menelaos sent a strong army under the command of his elder brother Agamemnon upon Troy. The Trojans defended in their strong castle. The war between Sparta and Troy lasted incessantly for ten years. The Spartans could not manage to enter Troy. Finally they made a devious plan. They built a big wooden horse and filled it with their best warriors. There were wheels under the feet of the horse. And then they collected their belongings, boarded their ships, pretending to give up the siege and return back to their country.

The Trojans, who were watching the situation from the towers went out of their castle, victoriously shouting and took the horse into the city as a war loot. They organized festivities that night; everybody celebrated wildly; they ate and drank all through the night and got drunk. After midnight, the soldiers had dropped down, very drunk , lying at some corner. At that moment the warriors inside the wooden horse got out and attacked the soldiers. And the rest of the Spartans lying in waiting, hidden in at a far place all rushed into Troy. In a few hours the Spartans had conquered Troy.

Poet Homeros narrates this story in the Illiad in great detail, thus leaving an immortal work to the future generations.

German Archaeologist Schlieman explored Troy towards the end of the 19th century, and smuggled most of the treasures he found there out of the country. Today the ruins of Troy is a place visited by thousands of tourists every day. A festival is held in Troy every year.

As we said at the beginning of our account, the real ballad -not legend- of Çanakkale was written by the heroic Turkish army and its unique commanders, 86 years ago, and that ballad is symbolized today at the Monument of Martyrs in Alçitepe.

An idiomatic expression has come down the years, from those days to our day... An unforgettable one: Çanakkale is unpassable...