MOUNTAIN IDA NATIONAL PARK

     The beautiful Kaz Dagi National Park is attractive with magnificent landscapes , restful gren areas and several hot springs. Take a moment to consider mythology , because here , n Pinarbasi the World's first beauty contest was held between Aphrodite , Hera and Athena. According to the story , at an important marriage banquet of King Peleus and the sea nymph Theis , to which the Evil Goddess of Discord , Eris , was not invited , she threw into the banqueting hall a golden apple marked 'For the Fairest'. All the goddesses wanted it, but in the end the choice was narrowed down to three : Aphrodite , Hera and Athena. They asked Zeus to judge them but he refused and told them to go to Mt. Ida , near Troy , where the young prince Paris was keepimg his father's sheep. He was doing shepherd's work because his father Priam , the King of Troy , had been warned that this Prince would some day be the ruin of his country , and so he had sent him away. All the goddesses offered him bribes. The choice was not easy. Hera promised to make him Lord Europe and Asia ; Athena , that he would lead the Trojabs to victory in war ; Aphrodite , that he fairest woman in the world should be his. He chose the last and gave Aphrodite the golden apple. That was the judgement of Paris , famed everywhere as the ral reason of Trojan War.

     At the northern entrance of the park , via Bayramic and Evcir , to the Kazdagi National Park are the main daily camping facilities. Haklım , Hamdibey and Akcakoyun are there towns popular with nature tourism. In Bayraic , 60 km from Canakkale , is the beautiful 18th-century Hadimoglu Mansion (Ottoman House) , with its ethnographical museums.