The Harbor Taken in August 2005, the panoramic photograph above shows clearly how sand dunes cover most of the sea walls and reduce any impression of the harbor’s size.  The development of the artificial harbor was likely begun by inhabitants of Neandria, one of seven cities whose population was to be forcibly relocated to Alexandria Troas in 310 B.C.E.  The harbor at Alexandria Troas developed as the successor to the harbor at Troy, strategically placed on the south bank of the Dardanelles but already silted in. Designed to provide safe passage into the Dardanelles and between Asia and Europe, the massive sea walls of the harbor at AlexandriaTroas accommodated ships from the Mediterranean and the Aegean. Passage into the mouth of the Dardanelles was notoriously difficult because of prevailing winds from the north in the summer and a strong current flowing into the Aegean Sea.   A goal of The Troas Project is to analyze how harboring at Troas enabled ships to make successful passage against such seasonally adverse winds and the strong current. The strategic placement of the harbor at Alexandria Troas strongly influenced Julius Caesar when he considered f making the city the capitol of the Roman Empire. In the fourth century, when Constantine moved the administration of the Empire to the east, he also weighed the merits of Troas as a possible capitol.