TROY

Troy is a city which existed over 4.000 years and known as the center of ancient civilizations. For many years people believed that it was the city mentioned only in the tales and never existed until it was first found in the 19th century. Troy (Truva in Turkish) is located in Hisarlik near Canakkale province where the remains of this once-great city can be visited. What was left are the remains of the destruction of Schliemann, the famous German archaeologist or a treasure hunter as some people call him. Today, an international team of German and American archaeologists bring the Troy of the Bronze Age back to life under a sponsored project by Daimler - Benz, and another Turkish team is at law wars with Russia and Germany to get back the stolen Trojan treasures.

Troy appeared in Greek and Latin literature. Homer first mentioned story of Troy in Iliad and Odyssey. Later, it became the most popular subject in Greek drama. The book of Virgil's Aeneid contains the best known account of the sack of Troy. In addition, there are untrue stories under the names of Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius.

In the Bronze age, Troy had a great power because of its strategic location between Europe and Asia. In the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC Troy was a cultural center. After the Trojan War, the city was abandoned from 1100 to 700 BC. About 700 BC Greek settlers began to occupy the Troas region, Troy was resettled and named as Ilion. Alexander the Great ruled the area around the 4th century BC. After Romans captured Troy in 85 BC, it was restored partially by Roman general Sulla and named as New Ilium. During the Byzantine rule, Troy lost its importance.

The tale of Troy is told by Homer with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer was drawing on a vast cycle of stories about Trojan War. The Iliad includes a few weeks in the tenth year of the war.

According to Greek sources, Troy stood near the Dardanelles. There was no dispute about its location in the story that we are all familiar: the Dardanelles, the islands of Imbros, Samothrace and little Tenedos, Mount Ida to the south east, the plain and the river Scamander. It was an ancient city an its inhabitants were known as Teucrians or Dardanians but also as Trojans or Ilians which got this name from eponymous heroes, Tros and his uncle Ilus. In other source mentioned that Troy and Ilius were two separate places but Homer insists on using these two names for Troy.

On the mainland of Greece at that time, the most powerful king was Agamemnon. His residence was at Mycenae. At that time, the inhabitants of Greece called themselves as Arhaians, Danaans, or Argiues not Greeks or Hellenes. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus of Sparta and sister to Helen. Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, she had married with Agamemnon's brother Menelaos who became king in Lakonia. Two brothers had a great power in southern Greece.