TROY
Famous the world over as the site of the epic siege recounted in Homer’s Iliad, Troy has been a continuous site of human settlement for at least three millennia, a cosmpolitan city at the juncture of ancient Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Balkans Fully nine civilizational layers extend beneath the surface, all atop a hill with sweeping views of the Aegean Sea. Conquered many times, destroyed by earthquakes, and rebuilt over millennia, today all that lies visible are the city’s foundations. Exercise your imagination as you wander the site, and try to picture the glories of the ancient city described so eloquently by Homer.
The nine layers of ruins tell an impressively long and grand story. Human occupation on the site of Troy began in the early Bronze Age. The first defensive wall around the main citadel was built circa 3000 BCE. Troy VI expanded, making it one of the largest commerical towns on the Aegean. An earthquake in 1350 BCE caused grave damage to Troy VI, but the town quickly recovered and was rebuilt on a more orderly plan. The evidence of widespread fire and slaughter around 1250 BCE, which brought Troy VII to an end, has led scholars to identify Troy VII as the city besieged by the Greeks during the Trojan War, immortalized in The Iliad. In 188 BCE, Troy was identified by the Romans as the Ilion of Homer and recognized as the mother-city of Rome (Ilium Novum). The town prospered under Roman rule and survived a severe earthquake in the early sixth century. Abandoned once again in the ninth century, it was reoccupied in the later Byzantine period and not finally deserted until well into the Ottoman period. The contemporary history of the site and its subsequent exploration and conservation dates from 1793. First identified by scholars as Ilion in 1810 and then as Troy in 1820, the famous German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, visited the site in 1868. Excavations over more than a century have revealed twenty-three sections of the defensive walls around the citadel, eleven gates, a paved stone ramp, and the lower portions of five defensive bastions. These date for the most part from Troy II and VI; however, a section of the earliest wall (Troy I) survives near the south gate of the first defences. The Greek and Roman influences on Troy are best represented in the sanctuary complex. Two large public buildings on the edge of the market reflect Roman urban organization. Be sure to explore the surrounding landscape, as it also contains many important prehistoric and historical sites of interest: cemeteries, Hellenistic burial mounds, Greek and Roman settlements, and Roman and Ottoman bridges.
