A brief tour of Troy, one of the most famous - and confusing - archaeological sites in Turkey.The Ruins of Troy | 7:27
Scenic Routes to the Past | 62.7K subscribers | 30,203 views | October 23, 2026
Posted on 10/27/2026 8:41:38 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A brief tour of Troy, one of the most famous - and confusing - archaeological sites in Turkey.
The Ruins of Troy | 7:27
Scenic Routes to the Past | 62.7K subscribers | 30,203 views | October 23, 2026
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
2:40 Walls of Troy VI
3:43 Walls of Troy II
4:05 Temple of Athena Ilias
4:53 Great Trench
5:28 Troy II ramp
5:51 Priam's Palace
6:45 Roman remains
YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
From the FRchives, the rest of the Trojan War keyword, sorted:
Transcript
Chapter 1: Introduction
Troy, the city of the Iliad, is one of the most famous ancient places on the planet. It is also one of the most confusing to visit. Over the course of more than 4,000 years, no fewer than 47 settlement layers conventionally organized into nine or 10 cities stood on the site. We’ll focus on two of these superimposed Troys: the late Bronze Age city Troy 6 and 7 and the Hellenistic and Roman city Troy 8 and 9. First, some brief context.
Troy occupied a strategic location on a natural hill overlooking the entrance to the Hellespont, the crucial strait connecting the Aegean with the Black Sea. The first substantial settlement on the site, Troy 1, emerged early in the 3rd millennium BC. That city’s successor, Troy 2, was one of the most important settlements in northwestern Anatolia with a large palace and impressive walls. The ramp that led up to the main gate is still visible. It was in this level that Hinrich Schliemann discovered the so-called Priam’s treasure, the trove of jewelry and precious metal that led him to believe wrongly that he had found Homer’s city. The Troy of Homer actually emerged a millennium later in the form of Troy 6. This was a much larger place than Troy 2 or any of the intervening settlements.
Besides the Citadel, whose massive walls are largely preserved, Troy 6 included a sprawling lower settlement that may have had as many as 10,000 inhabitants. After being destroyed by an earthquake early in the 13th century BC, the city was reconstructed as Troy 7, more specifically Troy 7A, which was leveled by enemy attack early in the 12th century BC. This, by general consensus, was the historical equivalent of the Trojan War. Unfortunately, besides the walls that protected Troy 6 and 7, little of this city remains. Most was destroyed during the Hellenistic era when the entire top of the hill was shaved off to accommodate the teos of the temple of Athena. More of the Homeric city was lost during the headlong excavation of Schliemann’s great trench. Most of what’s visible now, aside from the late Bronze Age walls, dates to the classical era when Troy became a famous tourist attraction. As we enter the site, the walls of Troy 6, the late Bronze Age city, loom ahead.
Chapter 2: Walls of Troy VI
About 2/3 of the circuit is still visible, built with regular blocks of local limestone. This mass of stonework, originally about 20 ft high, was just the base of the wall. There would have been a mudbrick wall supported with a timber framework on top. The total height of the defenses was probably something like 30 or 35 ft. Some of the wall’s features are visible here. The east gate tucked into a pocket created by overlapping segments of the city wall and the east tower added after the wall circuit was complete, which projected nearly 30 ft from the wall. The most impressive extent part of Troy 6’s wall circuit is the northeast bastion which protected an artesian well inside the citadel. The stone foundations of the bastion stand to about 2/3 of their original height.
Chapter 3: Walls of Troy II
From here we can glimpse the walls of Troy 2, the early Bronze Age settlement that Schliemann mistook for Homer’s city. The modern mud bricks now visible conceal ancient badly burned predecessors. Besides protecting the wall, the modern roof is meant to reflect the ground level before Schliemann started digging. This was the forecourt of the temple of Athena Ilios, the most important building in Hellenistic and Roman Troy.
Chapter 4: Temple of Athena Ilias
The temple itself is long gone, destroyed for its stone even before Schliemann arrived. Built in the 3rd century BC, it stood on the site of an earlier shrine in which Alexander the Great had been shown the weapons of Homeric heroes. Though the temple proper was only of moderate size, its precinct covered about half of the area inside the citadel of Troy 6. Here we can glimpse the walls of Troy 1, built near the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, centuries, in other words, before the pyramids of Giza. Though the walls are substantial, the area they enclosed was quite small, only a few hundred feet in diameter.
Chapter 5: Great Trench
This is Schliemann’s infamous Great Trench, 150 ft wide and up to 60 ft deep, cut down to bedrock, clear through the settlement mound. Convinced that Homer’s city would be the oldest on the site, Schliemann virtually ignored all the levels above. Even by the standards of the late 19th century, this was irresponsible archaeology. The Great Trench does, however, show the strata of the site: more than 3,000 years from the wall of Troy 1 to the Roman remains on top. This partially restored ramp is the best preserved part of Troy 2’s wall circuit. It led up to the main entrance of that era’s citadel.
Chapter 6: Troy II Ramp
The mudbrick walls through which it passed were some 15 ft thick. It was here, beneath the remains of a tower destroyed to build the ramp, that Schliemann found the greater part of Priam’s treasure. We’re now inside the citadel of Troy 6.
Chapter 7: Priam’s Palace
The retaining wall ahead of us supported part of the glacial complex at the heart of the citadel, the closest historical equivalent of Priam’s palace in the Iliad. There are scattered remains here of a classical sanctuary used through the Roman imperial era. The identity of the god or gods worshiped here, however, is uncertain. The sanctuary had a long life. When the emperor Julian visited Troy in the mid-4th century, he found the temples still open. Below was the lower city of late Bronze Age Troy. The packed foundations found by archaeologists attest to the density of settlement in this area, which was much larger than the citadel. The realization of its importance lent new credibility to the idea that Homer’s Troy was a truly substantial place.
Chapter 8: Roman Remains
We’ll conclude with the Bouleuterion and Odeon, a pair of buildings from Roman Troy. The Odeon, the better preserved of these, was restored by Hadrian. The stage building featured a large statue of the emperor. The connection between Rome and Troy remained vital long beyond Hadrian’s reign. Two centuries later, before he founded Constantinople, Constantine is said to have considered moving the capital of the Roman Empire to Troy. Another testimony to the lingering power of the city’s ruins. Follow the link in the description for my upcoming historical tours. Thanks for watching.
Awesome, thank you!
I have been to Troy and found it to be an amazing place. Thank you for posting this video.
Sunken Civ, you continue to give us a broad range of interesting posts and articles. We can pick and choose according to our interests. This Troy article is really good.
Thanks,
Oldplayer
I’ve been to Troy, NY, and Troy, AL, but I assume this is about the one in Turkey, which I haven’t been to. Give Hochul a few more years and maybe Troy, NY, will be in ruins too.
Thanks! If I thought I’d survive the places Ryan takes his tours, and had the cash, I’d probably go on at least one. I think he was a college prof, but regardless, looks like he’s decided to write his books and stay on vacation year-round.
My pleasure!
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