New angles on flood control in the plain of Troy

"Where the winter stream of the Bunarbashi-Su joins the Mendere, there are some immense blocks of irregular shape; they may have formed part of the wall of a small fortress" (Dr Peter Forschhammer, Topography of the Plain of Troy, p 39).  

Forschhammer tells us that he saw large blocks in the area he calls the winter channel of the Burnarbashi Su, which is a place in front of Pinarbasi where the western most rivulet in the plain can discharge eastward into the bed of the main river in the center of the plain.  

It turns out there is a low, wide, unnatural looking prominence in that area. It may have been a part of a flood control system.  I have circled it in the upper right of the picture below. In these diagrams we are looking east.  Yellow lines mark unnatural, raised earthworks. 

The plain experiences annual floods as well as ephemeral or flash floods.  Forschhammer, who spent a month in the plain in the 1840s, describes the flash floods, which occur frequently.  

“When the rain, beginning in Mount Ida, extends to the plain, the wide and deep bed of the Menderé is completely filled; in a half or a quarter of an hour it rushes over its banks on both sides; on the left side it fills the swamps below Bunarbashi, while the Kirk Jos sends off a stream in the direction of its ancient bed to join the Menderé farther down. On the right it covers the high part of the plain over to the Kalifat Asmak, and transforms that stream into an impetuous river . If the rain continues a few hours, it often happens that the inundation prevails over the whole plain from the Hellespont to the springs at Bunarbashi. It happens also that about the season of the heaviest rains, the strong south-west winds blow, checking the current of the Hellespont, and raising the level of its waters, while these again impede the discharge of the rivers, and increase the inundation in the lower part of the plain.” 

(DP Forschhammer, cited by Charles Maclaren, in The Plain of Troy Described,1863 p. 62f )   

By Hellespont he means the Dardanelle Straights into which the entire plain empties.  By the Kirk Jos he means the Pinarbasi Su, which is the western-most rivulet in the plain.  It begins at a field of springs in front of Pinarbasi which are called Kirk Jos, or Forty Eyes.  The 40 is a holy or lucky number, not their actual number.  

Forschammer is talking about the same connection between the Pinarbasi Su and the Mendere in both passages.  In the picture below, the bent red arrow in the top right heads into what Forschhammer calls both the "winter channel" of the Pinarbasi Su, where he saw large blocks, and the "ancient bed" of the Kirk Jos, toward which the springs send a stream during heavier rains.   

Finally, again from the east, the following picture shows a more complete look at the situation of the city during heavy rains and flash flooding. The blue circles are places where the water pools and deepens and slows down. Imagine each circle growing larger as the flood gets worse.  

The city in the plain had water coming at it from all sides in any extended rain storm, and was  built to handle flooding.  The plain was also modified to manage flooding.