The 15 m high settlement hill is called Hisarlık in Turkish. Located on the Dardanelles, the Bronze Age city of Troy controlled access to the Black Sea. The ships could not yet cross against the wind, so they waited in the port of the fortress for favourable winds. Their toll, pilotage and protection fees brought wealth to the city. Although archaeological evidence has not yet been provided, it is undisputed among experts that the Troy mentioned by Homer is identical to the settlement described here.

On August 9, 1868, the German merchant and hobby archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann came to the Troas plain. He was also looking for the legendary Troy here and first suspected it under the hill Balli Dağ based on a thesis by Jean Baptiste LeChevalier (1791). Schliemann and his five workers did not find what they were looking for, he wanted to leave, missed his ship and happened to meet Frank Calvert, in whose house he stayed overnight. Calvert could now inspire Schliemann with his conviction that under the hill of Hisarlık must hide the ruins of the Homeric Troy. Contrary to the self-portrayal in his biography, Schliemann owed his knowledge of the place to Consul Calvert.

Schliemann's most spectacular find was what Schliemann himself called the Treasure of Priam. He justified new things in several respects: Schliemann's fame as a scientist, the enthusiasm of the Wilhelminian Empire for Troy and for archaeology in general, which has now been promoted from a discipline for amateurs and travellers to a serious scientific discipline in the public eye. The gold treasure was kept for a long time in the Museum of Ancient Art in Berlin and brought to the USSR after the Second World War as booty art. However, already during Schliemann's lifetime - through his co-worker Wilhelm Dörpfeld - the first indications arose that the treasure was more than 1000 years older than assumed by Schliemann.

Schliemann already wrote that he had to give the author of the Iliad poetic freedom ("exaggeration"); he also knew that he did not excavate the whole city, but "the Pergamos[castle] of the city"[Troy].

As fascinating as Troy is for those interested, it is disappointing for millions of visitors who pass through the excavation site year after year. For the disappointed visitors, the wooden horse is the real attraction. Hardly anyone leaves without being photographed in the horse or in front of it.

Troy's most famous photo motif