The Discovery of Troy

The legendary Troy was a mighty city ruled by King Priam. His son, Paris held a beauty contest between three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. He let Aphrodite win as she promised to find him a beautiful wife in the world. After the contest, Paris visited the King of Sparta and fell in love with his wife, Helen, who was known as the most beautiful woman in this world. Paris took Helen back to Troy and the King of Sparta was very angry. The Greeks were very angry too and they fought a war with the Trojans for 10 years. However, they were unsuccessful as a high stone wall protected Troy.

The Greeks were very furious by their defeat and came out with a plan. They left a wooden horse outside the walls of Troy and pretended to sail away in their ships. When night fell, the Trojans were very curious about the wooden horse and pulled it into Troy. That night, the Greek army hidden in the horse crept out and opened up the gates of Troy, allowing the rest of the Greek army into Troy. They killed Paris and every single Trojan and Helen was returned to King of Sparta.

Archaeological Means:

The first archaeologist to study Troy was a German called Heinrich Schliemann. He noted a small mound about kilometres from Dardanelles, which seemed to fit the geographical location of Troy. The mound was named Hissarlik. Schliemann and his men started to dig there since 1870 and found evidence that several cities had been built on that site for many years. Near the bottom of the excavation, he discovered that the ruins of an ancient city with massive walls, well-built houses and hidden treasures of gold and silver. This ancient city was Troy. In all, archaeologists had found out that there are 10 Troy cities and each successive city was built on the ruins of the one before it. They believed that the seventh city was the legendary city of Troy.

From 1100B.C to 700B.C, no one lived on the site of Troy. Some Greek people settled in a small village there in 700B.C. The last city on that site was Troy IX that was built in the late 300B.C. It was called Ilium by the Greeks and Romans and lasted for about 700 years to A.D.400. It remained undisturbed till Schliemann discovered its existence.