‘O terque quaterque beati, quis ante ora partum Troiae sub moenibus altis contigit oppetere!’ (Oh, you who are blessed three and four times over, who happened to meet death before the faces of your fathers beneath the high walls of Troy) and ‘mene Iliacis occumbere campis non potuisse’ (Could I not have fallen on the Trojan plain…?) were just a couple of extracts from the Iliad which were read out to the students from Nonsuch High School for Girls on the Classics trip to Turkey as they surveyed the ruins at Troy. 

Though the party left Nonsuch High School at an all-too-early 6:45am, due to certain two-hour long queue at passport control in Istanbul and a five-hour coach journey, we did not reach the Dardanelles until late into the evening.  However, despite being exhausted by the end of the first day’s journey (which we likened to Horace’s ‘A Traveller’s Tale’), we were miraculously still full of energy and excitement for our visits to Troy and Pergamon the next day, from which we all learnt at least one thing: the Ancient Greeks certainly knew how to pick a view! From the top of the hills of Pergamon the breath-taking views of the towns, rivers and mountains below are truly spectacular.

Over the course of the next five days- and exchanges to three other hotels- we explored Priene, Miletus (what’s left of it anyway), Magnesia upon the Meander and Ephesus.  When it came to visiting the Temple of Athena, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World everyone was somewhat confused on exiting the coach.  All that was visible was a column with a stalk’s nest on it. We were told, for perhaps the tenth time on that trip to use our ‘historical imagination’.  Then came journeys to the Greek and Roman ancient sites Aphrodisias, Hierapolis (Pamukkale), Aizonai and Iznik. We were in awe of these ruins but what came next completely stunned us all. Ending our visit in Istanbul, we explored the mighty, ancient and colourful Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia and then finally the spooky underground Basilica.  Exhausted from the week’s adventures, we took our flight back home to Sutton!  This was definitely not the stereotypical beach holiday to Turkey; it has left us with so much to talk about, ponder over and imagine in relation to how people lived and worked thousands of years ago.

Ella Ditri, Nonsuch High School for Girls