Ever since the feature film “Troy” starring Hollywood hottie Brad Pitt premiered on the big screen, there has hardly been a single person who doesn’t know the story of Beautiful Helen who was kidnapped by a Trojan prince and the bloody Trojan War that followed. The events described by the ancient poet Homer weren’t just fiction. Troy was an actual city and its ruins, found by archaeologists in modern-day Turkey, are there to prove it.

Today they can be found in the Historical National Park only 30 kilometres away from Canakkale. And even though some scientists still doubt that those ruins really belonged to Troy, there’s no evidence to prove that they didn’t, and no one has found another Troy yet. Troy discovered in Turkey consists of nine layers. That was due to frequent wars and earthquakes, after which the city had to be rebuilt on top of its ruins.

The oldest layers date back to the 3rd millennium BCE. Then, Troy was just a small settlement, a stone fortress, to be exact, only 100 metres in diameter. Nevertheless, the ancient citadel had endured for almost five centuries before its fragile walls were almost demolished by fire. The surviving Trojans soon rebuilt the city. Its size remained the same, but now it was more lively. Based on excavated treasures made from precious metals, researchers concluded that trade was thriving in Troy. However, Troy’s treasures were the reason for its downfall. The city was destroyed once again.

The following three layers had nothing remarkable about them, there were only residential buildings, however, the sixth or seventh layer was the city immortalised by Homer. At that time, there was built a more powerful fortress with watchtowers and 5-metre thick walls. Great cracks in those walls have also survived to this day and serve as a reminder of frequent earthquakes that toppled Troy throughout its legendary history.