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Giant Greek Horse Makes Stop In Old City On Way To New Exhibit In D.C.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A giant wooden Trojan Horse made a stop in Old City on Tuesday as part of a five-day trip to our nation's capital.

Troy is a 19-foot long, 3,700 pound replica of the horse that tradition tells us the Greeks used to help win the Trojan War. Created out of hand-burnt and weathered wood by Chicago design shop, Illumivation Studios, it was originally installed at the entrance to the Chicago Red Line train station. But, on Tuesday, the horse stood outside the Hotel Monaco at 5th and Chestnut Streets. It was the second of three stops during his travels from Chicago to Washington D.C.

"He is bringing in and with him all of the excitement of the National Geographic Museum's brand new exhibit that opens June 1, called 'The Greeks: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great,'" said Sara Snyder, one of Troy's Handlers. "The exhibit is all about the Greeks -- the people, the history, the culture, their power, and sort of how it's been disseminated."

The exhibit features more than 550 artifacts from the national collections of 22 museums throughout Greece, making it the largest exhibition of its kind to tour North America in 25 years.

"It's a really unique exhibit for us at National Geographic because most of these antiquities have not left Greece, so this is one of their first times stateside," Snyder said. It's going to give our audiences an amazing opportunity to learn a little bit more about the Greeks and who they are, what they did, how they rose from power and fell from it."

So why a stop in Philadelphia? Snyder explained the significance of the visit.

"Philadelphia has Greek origins in its name...delphi," she said. "We actually swung through Delphi, Indiana, mimicking sort of the Greek culture. We have a lot of Greek heritage on our route, so this was one of our stops."

The Hotel Monaco hosted a specialty cocktail to help usher in the exhibit.

Troy was expected to make a stop in Baltimore Wednesday before being installed at the National Geographic Museum on Thursday.

The exhibit will be open until October 10. Click here for more information.

 

 

 

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