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Comment by lordleft | Hacker News Reader

I knew vaguely that Troy had many layers of settlement, but I didn't realize that Troy had an extensive life in antiquity that extended into the classical Greek age (Post-Bronze Age) and Early Roman Age. It's funny to think of Roman and Greek Tourists visiting Troy VIII in 300 BC.

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I wonder if there were street vendors selling little replicas of the wooden horse.

When I visited Troy, the museum's trojan horse replica said "Under Construction". Apparently it had been that way for months and months, which was pretty funny considering the original took only 3 days.

"Be careful building that thing! It might go off!"

I had the same problem during my visit. It seems we can't build bridges, railroads, or Trojan horses nearly as fast as earlier generations could.

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https://patrickcollison.com/fast

Don't underestimate ancient globalization.

Heck, Inuit had Chinese bronze artifacts [0] well before European contact (basically 4,000 miles).

[0] - https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/archive/releases/2016/Q2/old...

Trade =/= globalisation.

IIRC, the Inuit reached North America from the West right about the time the Vikings reached it from the East, but they managed to colonize and stay, displacing the native inhabitants and eventually spreading to Greenland, again displacing the natives. Their technological advantages were their kayaks and hunting strategies, so presumably the displacement was less violent.

Was there anything resembling tourism in 300 BC?

"The final layers (Troy VIII–IX) were Greek and Roman cities which served as tourist attractions and religious centers because of their link to mythic tradition."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy

no, but in first century bc and after that the roman world was connected enough that rich young romans were doing their version of the grand tour. Cesar managed to be kidnapped by pirates doing something like that, if I remember it correctly.

> no, but in first century bc and after that the roman world was connected enough that rich young romans were doing their version of the grand tour.

So "yes", then.

The og question is about two centuries earlier. Time matters.

Define tourism, though. Even quit a bit before 300 BC Herodotus did go to Egypt for not particularly practical reasons

To write a travel guide papyrus. :)

There were “pilgrimages”, trade, and extended families. Joseph traveled with his brothers to Egypt long before 300 BC

Alexander the Great visited it in 334 BC: https://greekreporter.com/2025/09/07/alexander-the-great-vis...

Edit: this was also mentioned in the article

not exactly a tourist :) but the point stands

I dunno, given the reputation we Americans have as tourists, it'd be nice to point out good ol' Alex and say, "hey, it could be worse!"

That's covered in the article.

not only there was, people were still people and we have roman and greek graffiti on monuments ("X was here" and similar).

according to medieval reports the white limestone surfaces of the pyramids were absolutely cluttered with Egyptian Roman and other in eligible graffiti

Yes, definitely. There was tourism in Greece in the Classical Period, too. Epidaurus is a good example: a major religious sanctuary, side by side with a theatre and athletics venues, all part of the thriving local economy propped up entirely by tourism. Fun fact: history's first recorded hypochondriac was a frequent patient/visitor at the temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus.

It seems that a major objective of Judaism’s monotheism and singular Temple complex was predicated on being “A Light to All Nations” and a central, exclusive focus for pilgrimage (and therefore, economic activity) during the Jewish feasts.

In fact this is exactly the same situation which drives pro-Israel sentiment in modern times: pilgrimage == tourism == $$$.

There was trading, and that alone could shift objects well away from their original locations without any contact with the original creators.

There were also nomads, pilgrimages (as some have said), and African swallows.

For example the great pyramids were already a popular "tourist" destination hundreds of years before christ.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza#Historio...

I read something about the Sphinx in Egypt suggesting that modern excavations came to the conclusion that at least one Ancient Egyptian dynasty probably excavated it trying to figure out the history of it as well

The oldest written text that definitely refers to it is the Dream Stele by Thutmose IV, which describes him having it dug free of sand. The monument was more than a thousand years old at that point.

Young kings showing their piety by restoring old monuments was useful royal propaganda. This wasn't even the last time that the Sphinx was restored.

The Pyramids have a recently noticed Tamil inscription from Indian tourists visiting 2000 years ago.

And the Neo-Babylonian Empire had the first tourism minister taking care of a paleo-Babylonian site.

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