Troy

Troy which has an important position on the land of Anatolia where the civilization of the world has been born and had flourished has always attracted the interest of the archaeologists around the world for almost a hundred years. Iliad and Odysseus, two masterpieces in the world literature, tell about this city. Famous from the writings of Homer, the land in Hisarlik in Anatolia, close to the seacoast in what is now Canakkale province in northwest Turkey, southwest of the Dardanelles under Mount Ida, lie the ruins of the ancient city of Troy.

Here you can find the remains of the legendary city, excavated by the Austrian archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1870s. Until this year, classical scholars the world over had thought the city of Troy the stuff of legend. That changed when Austrian millionaire-cum-archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, discovered the city that was the site of the famous war between the Greeks and the Trojans in the 12th century BC. According to Homer, war broke out when Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy, eloped with Helen, the beautiful wife of Menelaus of Sparta. An army led by Menelaus’ brother, Agamemnon, set out in revenge to attack the Trojans. The ensuing war lasted 10 years, until the Greeks made pretence of retreating. Instead they hid inside a specially-constructed horse, which the Trojans foolishly believed to be a peace offering and took inside their walls, whereupon the cunning Greeks emerged and ransacked the city. Every year thousands of tourists have been coming to see this worldly-known legendary city.