Troya Ruins

Troya Ruins

The oldest settlements in Truva, which has a complex and rich archaeological structure, with 10 different city layers belonging to different periods, dating back to 3,000 BCE.  This unique area, which had uninterrupted settlement until 500 CE, enabled the residents of the region to control all the traffic sailing from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea in that period.

Troy is an important city in understanding the early development of European civilization. The city has cultural significance due to its contribution to Homer's Iliad and creative art. 

Located within the boundaries of Çanakkale province, on the slopes of the Kaz Mountain (Kazdağı), Troy was declared a National Park in 1996 and was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a cultural asset in 1998.

The ancient city of Troy is located in the west of Tevfikiye Village in the Central district of Çanakkale.

It is thought that Troy, located on the edge of a bay where the Karamenderes (Skamender) and Dümrek streams reach the Aegean, was very close to the sea in the early years of settlement and gradually fell away from the sea due to the silting of Karamenderes river. The city, which was destroyed by wars and natural disasters and rebuilt many times over, gradually lost its importance and was finally abandoned.

Troy, which has become the subject of many movies, has an important place in mythology besides its rich historical background. The city has been the subject of Homer's epic of the Iliad and the Trojan War has become a story known in the minds.

In the region visited by archaeologists and travellers since the 16th century, a hill where the city layers accumulated due to the use of adobe as construction material in the houses was formed as a result of the excavations.

The most magnificent megaron structures, which are the forerunners of ancient temples, are seen in Troy since 3,000 BCE. In addition, ashlar masonry has been found in Troy since 2500 BCE, when iron was not known yet.

Troy Museum

The new museum building, which was designed with a modern museology understanding, was named the "Troy Museum (Truva Müzesi)" and was officially opened in 2019. Today, the old Archaeology Museum building in the centre continues to serve as the Provincial Public Library (İl Halk Kütüphanesi).

The Troy Museum is located at the entrance of the Ancient City of Troy, which was included in the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO in 1998, within the boundaries of Tevfikiye Village of the Central District of Çanakkale Province. It has a 3,000 m2 exhibition hall and 11,200 m2 closed area.

In the Troy Museum, the life and archaeological history of Troy and its cultures, which left their mark in the Troas Region, which has gone down in history with Homer's famous Iliad, are explained through the artefacts from the excavations.

When visitors follow a story divided into seven topics: The Archaeology of the Troas Region is the Bronze Age of Troy, the Epic of the Iliad and the Troy War, the Troas and Ilion in the Ancient Period, the Eastern Roman and Ottoman Period, the History of Archeology, and the Traces of Troy.

Visitors can climb to each exhibition floor via the ramp. In the niches on the walls of the ramp, different layers of Troy are described with tombstones, large sculptures, stage animations, and large size photographs. In the circulation band, which is the entrance area of the museum, the science of archaeology, archaeological and archaeometic dating methods, and terms such as "Neolithic, chalcolithic, bronze age, iron age, mound, restoration, conservation" are explained through diagrams, drawings, texts and interactive methods in order to provide an orientation to the visitor before the ongoing exhibition floors.

Trojan Horse

The Iliad and Odyssey epics of Homer, who lived in today’s İzmir (ancient Smyrna) in the 8th century BCE, are based on oral tradition that dates back to the 2nd millennium. The myth of the "Trojan War" and the sorrows of those who participated in this war have survived to the present day in the poems of the Iliad and Odyssey. The Iliad consists of the events of the 10-year siege period in the Troy Wars.

The subject of the legend of Paris and Helen, the Trojan Horse was a tactical maneuver in history planned by Odysseus, the commander of the Achaeans, to take over the city of Troy.

The 12.5-meter-high horse at the entrance of the city as the symbol of the ancient city of Troy was built by the Turkish artist İzzet Senemoğlu using pine trees brought from the Kaz Mountains (Kaz Dağları) in 1975.

The wooden horse used in the movie Troy, which was shot in 2004 and inspired by the Trojan War is located in the city centre of Çanakkale. Together with the wooden horse, you will see outside Troy, you will decide which one is more realistic.