Where is ilium troy

It occupied a strategic position on the Dardanelles, a narrow water channel that connects the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea, via the Sea of Marmara. Over the past two centuries Troy has become one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. Yet despite its fame, both in literature and in our imaginations, it remains a place shrouded in myth and legend, unlike almost any other.

The tale of the Trojan War is perhaps the most famous story of ancient Greek mythology. For almost 3, years, the fabled feud between Greeks and Trojans has captivated audiences. Tradition holds that the war took place during the Mycenaean Age, toward the end of the second millennium B.

Combatants on both sides, including Achilles, Odysseus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Hector, and Aeneas remain household names even today. The Trojan War and its events provide the background for two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey , which were supposedly composed by the poet Homer around the eighth century B. The mythical conflict took place outside the walls of Troy, an ancient city on the coast of Asia Minor. But the seeds of war were sown far from there, in the city of Sparta on the Greek mainland.

According to legend, the Trojan prince Paris visited Sparta, which at the time was ruled by King Menelaus. When Paris departed Greece, he left with Helen by his side, enraging the Spartan leader.

Not only was Menelaus a formidable king in his own right, but his brother Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae, and the most powerful ruler in Greece. Agamemnon assembled a massive army and set sail across the Aegean Sea with over 1, ships, determined to retrieve Helen from Troy. For many years the Greeks camped outside the walls of Troy, but were unable to penetrate its mighty defenses.

By the tenth year, many of the Greek soldiers longed to see their homeland again. Thus, the cunning Odysseus finally devised a plan to end the war once and for all. The Greeks constructed a giant wooden horse and secretly filled it with a contingent of their best fighters.

They left the horse on the beach and sailed away during the night, pretending that they had finally given up and returned home. When the Trojans awoke the next morning, they were astonished to see that all that remained of the Greek encampment was the large wooden horse.

Believing it to be a votive gift to the gods, offered by the Greeks to ensure their safe passage home, the Trojans wheeled the contraption inside the city walls and celebrated their hard-fought victory. The winds came and the fleet set sail for Troy.

For nine years the Greeks ravaged Troy's surrounding cities and countryside, but the city itself, well fortified and commanded by Hector and other sons of the royal household, held out.

While battling some Storm Giants , Thor and Loki discover the crack in the ground that once led to Olympus. This time, strange mists rob Thor of his memory as he and Loki get separated in the cavern.

Once through, he meets Aeneas and found himself involved in the Trojan War. He assisted to the single combat between Menelaus and Paris, and rejoiced to see Paris defeated, meaning the war's end.

As Paris was about to be slain, Aphrodite came invisible to save him, seen only from Thor and Aeneas. The was soon reignited by Athena who manipulated Pandarus of Lycia to strike an arrow at Menelaus. Aeneas took Pandarus with him on a chariot for him to attack Menelaus at close range, but he was slain by Diomedes manipulated by Athena as well.

As Aeneas went to help the fallen Pandarus, Diomedes struck him with a massive rock and attempted to slay Aeaneas, who was timely protected by Aphrodite, then by Thor. Thor evacuated Aeneas within the walls of Troy, where he asked the Norse God to heal him for him to return to battle. An amateur but skilled archaeologist, he was convinced that there would be a good place to dig.

So when Schliemann visited in , with Homer in one hand and a spade in the other, determined to make his name in archaeology, Calvert found him easy to persuade. His interpretation that the finds were evidence of the Trojan War was questioned at the time and, perhaps sadly for romantics everywhere, it is no longer accepted. But of course, Homer was a poet and not a historian.

It remains immensely difficult to link the Iliad specifically to the archaeology of Troy. Understanding of the site, its development over time and its place in the ancient world continues to grow. From an archaeological perspective, there is a rich history to be uncovered that stands quite apart from the myth of the Trojan War and is important in its own right. Yet the myth and the site remain inextricably linked.

Buy the book accompanying the exhibition here. Map Data. Terms of Use. Report a map error. Exhibitions and events The search for the lost city of Troy The myth of the Trojan War has captivated people for thousands of years and has led pilgrims, explorers and archaeologists to search for the location where the famed conflict took place.

But did the city really exist? In anticipation of our major autumn exhibition, curators Lesley Fitton and Alexandra Villing explore the reality behind the myth.

Book tickets. Aerial view of the site of Troy It is this record of a people and their city that is preserved in archaeology. In , Heinrich Schliemann dug a huge trench right through the centre of the mound of Troy. This showed that the mound was made up of the layers of successive settlements. Troy begins The original village of Troy Troy I was small, but it flourished and grew.

The city flourishes Troy went from strength to strength. In its Late Bronze Age heyday, the site was impressive, as this imagined reconstruction shows.

Troy and Ilion Troy fell into ruin at the end of the Bronze Age, around BC, as did all the centres of power of the Mediterranean world, for reasons that are not completely understood. A fine temple was built at Troy in the Hellenistic period of the third century BC.

This decoration from the temple shows Athena, patron goddess of the city, to whom the temple was dedicated. Troy lost It seems completely astonishing that the site of Troy could later have been lost, but it was. The search for Troy The search for Troy became a major preoccupation for travellers, topographers, writers and scholars in the 18th and early 19th centuries when ancient Greece and its myths captivated public imagination in Europe.