Troy:

Troy (Troia, Wilusa in Hitit Language) is an ancient settlement, which locates near the Canakkale province Turkey. Troy is known because of the placing at İliad of Homer. Trojan War places  in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Trojan refers to the inhabitants and culture of Troy.

Today it is the name of an ancient site, the location of Homeric Troy in Hisarlık, Anatolia, close to the seacoast in which is now Canakkale city in northwest Turkey. It is also, southwest of the Dardanelles near Mount Ida.

In 1865 an English archaeologist, Frank Calvert, started first excavations  at Hisarlık, later in 1868 a German businessman, Heinrich Schliemann, carried on after Frank Calvert in Canakkale town, also began excavating in this area. Troy has 9 sections and the famous layer is at second layer.

The archaeological site of Troy was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998.

Troy is 15 kms away from Canakkale city center.

Transportation:

There are several transportation options to Troy ancient site. These are regular bus services (Dolmus), Taxi services or Rent a car services. Most economic way to g oto Troy is Dolmus option, taxi option and Rent a car option in turn.

Things to see:

At Troy ancient site you can see following , odeon, Artemis Temple, entrance ramp of second Troy, Altar, Sacrifice area.

Importance:

Ancient Troy dominated 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.

Available Tours:

There are several travel companies in Canakkale running troy tours. Troy (Troia) tours generally starts early in the morning arround  8:15 a.m., and includes the transfers with a/c non smoking busses from hotel to site, professional english speaking tour guide, and entrance fees to the site. In the troy  tour you will see the wooden horse in the entrance of the site, and will see the ruins of the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th  which had been built over and over since 3500 B.C. Troy (Troia) can be considered as one of the oldest known settlements and may be the most sophisticated among the older and same century settlements in Turkey. The regular Troy (Troia) tours generally takes  about 2 and half hours.

Myth of Troy:

All the gods and goddesses attended a weddingon mount Ida except Eris, goddess of discord. Furious of this slight, Eris threw a golden apple, inscribed "For the fairest" on it , to the middle of the guests. Three powerful goddesses wished to have the prize as the fairest: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. They asked Zeus to solve the problem but Zeus couldn’t. And Zeus directed Hermes to refer the arbitration to Paris, a Trojan prince who was an sheperd, the young son of Priam and Hecuba.

Each goddess offered different rewards to Paris if he chose her. Athena offered him become a great hero or general; Hera offered him richest and powerful kingdom; then Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world in marriage: Helen of Sparta. Paris decided  to choose Aphrodite's offer and gave her the golden apple.

But Helen was the wife of Menalous who is king of Sparta. She was daughter of Zeus. Aphrodite made Helen fall in love with Paris. Aphrodite helped Paris to take Helen from Sparta and marry with her.

After Helen ran off to Troy from Sparta with Paris, the Trojan war which is going to take 10 years has started.