Hissarlik - Ancient Troy

Hisarlik is the modern name for the site of ancient Troy (or Illiion), and is located in what is now Turkey, around 6.5 km from the Aegean Sea. This type of site is known as a Tell' - an artificial hill, built up over centuries of occupation from its original site on a bedrock mound.  Hisarlik tell is thirty meters high.  It was suggested as a possible site of ancient Troy by a number of amateur archaeologists in the early to mid 19th century. 

Hisarlik was one of many successful pockets of human civilization which arose and prospered in Anatolia. Paleogeographic studies indicate beneficial surroundings for settlement from around the eighth millennium BC, when receding seas left a fertile, plain which over time became a shallow but navigable estuary. Above this natural harbour, the hill was large enough to support extensive building, providing natural protection from invasion.  Over two millennia a thriving civilisation existed here. 

Occupation of the area was unbroken and saw the coming and going of the Romans, the Armenians and Kurds. Finally, after several centuries of failed attempts, the Greeks gained control of the region.