Troy, Greek Troia, also called Ilios or Ilion, Latin Troia, Troja, or Ilium, ancient city in northwestern Anatolia that holds an enduring place in both literature and archaeology. The legend of the Trojan War is the most notable theme from ancient Greek literature and forms the basis of Homer’s Iliad. Although the actual nature and size of the historical settlement remain matters of scholarly debate, the ruins of Troy at Hisarlık, Turkey, are a key archaeological site whose many layers illustrate the gradual development of civilization in northwestern Asia Minor.
Geography
Ancient Troy commanded a strategic point at the southern entrance to the Dardanelles (Hellespont), a narrow strait linking the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea via the Sea of Marmara. The city also commanded a land route that ran north along the west Anatolian coast and crossed the narrowest point of the Dardanelles to the European shore. In theory, Troy would have been able to use its site astride these two lines of communication to exact tolls from trading vessels and other travelers using them; the actual extent to which this took place, however, remains unclear.
The Troad (Greek Troias; “Land of Troy”) is the district formed by the northwestern projection of Asia Minor into the Aegean Sea. The present-day ruins of Troy itself occupy the western end of a low descending ridge in the extreme northwest corner of the Troad. Less than 4 miles (6 km) to the west, across the plain of the Scamander (Küçük Menderes) River, is the Aegean Sea, and toward the north are the narrows of the Dardanelles.
Archaeology
The search for Troy at Hisarlık
The approximate location of Troy was well known from references in works by ancient Greek and Latin authors. But the exact site of the city remained unidentified until modern times. A large mound, known locally as Hisarlık, had long been understood to hold the ruins of a city named Ilion or Ilium that had flourished in Hellenistic and Roman times. In 1822 Charles Maclaren suggested that this was the site of Homeric Troy, but for the next 50 years his suggestion received little attention from Classical scholars, most of whom regarded the Trojan legend as a mere fictional creation based on myth, not history. The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann deserves full credit for adopting Maclaren’s identification and demonstrating to the world that it was correct. In seven major and two minor campaigns between 1870 and 1890, Schliemann conducted excavations on a large scale mainly in the central area of the Hisarlık mound, where he exposed the remains of a walled citadel. After Schliemann’s death in 1890, the excavations were continued (1893–94) by his colleague Wilhelm Dörpfeld and later (1932–38) by an expedition from the University of Cincinnati headed by Carl W. Blegen. After a lapse of some 50 years, excavations resumed (1988–2005) under the leadership of University of Tübingen archaeologist Manfred Korfmann and continued after his death.
Questions of Troy’s physical size, population, and stature as a trade entrepôt and regional power became subjects of intense scholarly dispute following the resumption of excavations at Hisarlık in the late 1980s. Although Homeric Troy was described as a wealthy and populous city, by this time some scholars had come to accept the probability of a lesser Troy a relatively minor settlement, perhaps a princely seat. Beginning in 1988, Korfmann’s team investigated the terrain surrounding the citadel site in search of wider settlement. Korfmann’s findings at Hisarlık, drawn from geomagnetic surveying and isolated excavations, led him to conclude in favour of a greater Troy that is, a settlement of some size and prosperity. His presentation of this perspective in a 2001 exhibition, accompanied by a controversial model reconstruction of the city, sparked especially intense scholarly debate over the city’s true nature.
Trojan War
Helen of Troy
Troy,
Although the ruins are very scattered, this is still a place that you should visit. The history is interesting and the fact that there were several Troys built on top of one another is fascinating. It just makes you wonder how people could build such things thousands of years ago. And the countryside is beautiful there.
Apart from visiting Troy, you should also visit nearby towns such as Assos and see the beautiful citadel there. The beach is very lovely there and the food is also very fresh and delicious.
Make arrangements for a guide and allow time to read the signs. Do some reading beforehand. This is an incredible site, and much is still unexcavated, but the funding for repairs and infrastructure is not adequate.
I used Eyewitness Travel http://www.eyewitnessturkey.com/index.html for my tour to Troy. They arranged an amazing day tour for me so I could go see the ancient ruins. From beginning to end the trip was perfect. The food was incredibly, the tour guides friendly and knowledgeable and the site itself is amazing. It is unbelievable that there is still so much to…
I did not know what my reaction would be when I visited the ruins of Ancient Troy. I am quite critical of the butcher job Schliemann did in the original excavations, though an admirer of Dörpfeld who cleaned up a lot of Schliemann’s mistakes and did the subsequent excavations that identified the 9 different civilizations constituting the Troy “tell.” I…
Unfortunately there isn't much left other than ruins and excavations still are going on but you can have a glimpse of which was once the craddle of helenistic world. Having a guide is mandatory since it's a tour to enjoy not only with your eyes but your ears as well.
If you visit Troy as part of an itinerary touring Turkey you will doubtless have a different experience than mine. I visited as a long day trip, leaving Istanbul at about 6:30AM, and returning close to 10PM. There was a stop at a roadside rest area for Breakfast, which was not included, about an hour outside Istanbul, an included lunch…
We visited this site in conjunction with Gallipoli, Ephesus. Yes, you need a tour guide to see the best of Troy. The explanation cards at each site give you a better idea of what the site actually looked like. Do a little research of Troy before you come helps a lot. I would recommend to visit the site.
Go well prepared & as early as you can on a weekday. It can be quite enjoyable without the crowds or the heat
This site isn't magnificent in the way that Knossos on Crete is, because there aren't reconstructed buildings (except for the rather ridiculous "Trojan horse", but at least that's fun to climb up into). But the site is fascinating because almost everything you see is exactly what was found. You get a real sense of the adding-on that happened over the…