The wooden horse in the ancient city of Troy, which is home to 5,500 years of history, at the entrance of the Tevfikiye village of the center of Çanakkale, is being renovated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The 15-meter (49-feet) structure was constructed in 1973 at the suggestion of Çanakkale Museum Director Ilhan Akşit and completed in 1974 to symbolize the wooden horse stated to have conquered Troy by having hidden the soldiers of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, inside it in Homer's epic.
Visitors, who can enter the wooden horse built using pine timber, have the opportunity to better understand the war trick that took place in the Trojan War in the 500s B.C. in Homer's epics of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey."
The parts of the wooden horse worn over time are now being renovated by the teams of the Bursa Roleplay and Monuments Directorate affiliated with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The wooden horse will reopen to visitors next month after the restoration.
Professor Rüstem Aslan, head of the excavation committee of the ancient city of Troy and faculty member of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the Trojan horse is a very important symbol for archaeology.
Aslan stated that the most important object of the Trojan mythology and story is the Trojan horse.
"Actually, the Trojan horse is a subject of much debate. Of course, Homer's 'Iliad' tells about the Trojan War, but we do not have any data about the Trojan horse in this epic. The second epic tells the 10-year return story of the Achaean soldiers after the end of the 10-year war. Here, in the second epic 'Odyssey,' Homer gives information about the Trojan horse in three different parts; It tells of the conquest of Troy by the trick of war, which was the plan thought up by Odysseus."
Stating that this war trick is at the center of Homer's narratives, Aslan noted that since the 19th century, many theories have been put forward about whether the Trojan horse existed or not.
Aslan stated that there are those who claim that the ram-head type of attack tool may have been transformed into a horse-like war tool in a war in the so-called Late Bronze Age.
Aslan also stated that the wooden Trojan horse in the ancient city is an artifact that symbolizes the story.
"During the tourism season, visitors will be able to get inside the horse and feel the story of the Trojan War from their own perspective. There are visitors who come here just to see the horse and to explore it."
