When Homer’s Iliad was first written  down in the 8th century BCE, the story of the Trojan war  was already an old one. From existing oral tradition, audiences knew the tales  of the long siege, the epic duels outside the city walls, and the cunning trick  that finally won the war. In the end, the magnificent city was burned to the ground, never to rise again. But had it ever existed? By the time the field of archaeology  began to take shape in the 19th century, many were skeptical, considering the epic to be pure fiction, a founding myth imagining  a bygone heroic era. But some scholars believed that behind the superhuman feats  and divine miracles there must have been a grain  of historical truth - a war that was really fought, and a place where it happened. Frank Calvert was one such believer. He had spent his youth traveling  and learning about ancient civilizations before accompanying his brother Frederick on a diplomatic mission to the northwest Anatolian region of Çanakkale. It was here that Homer described  the Greek encampment at the mouth of the Scamander river. And it was here that fate brought Frank  into contact with a journalist and geologist  named Charles Maclaren. Locals and travelers had long speculated that Troy might’ve stood on one  of the surrounding hilltops. But Maclaren had been one of the first to publish a detailed topographical  study of the area. He believed he had found the site – a 32-meter mound known  by the name Hisarlık, derived from the Turkish word  for “fortress.” Soon after meeting with him in 1847, the Calverts bought  2,000 acres of farmland that included part of the hill. Before they could explore any further, the Crimean War broke out and forestalled their archaeological  ambitions for several years. After the war’s end, Frank Calvert began to survey the site, but lacked the funds  for a full excavation. This was where the wealthy  German businessman and amateur archaeologist  Heinrich Schliemann came in. At Calvert’s invitation, Schliemann visited the grounds in 1868,  and decided to excavate. Eager to find the ancient city, Schliemann tore massive trenches  all the way to the base of the hill. There, he uncovered a hoard  of precious artifacts, jewelry, and metalwork, including two diadems  and a copper shield. Schliemann took full credit  for the discovery, announcing that he had found Troy and the treasure of its king Priam. But the real treasure was elsewhere. When later archaeologists  studied the site, they realized that the mound consisted  of no less than nine cities, each built atop the ruins of the last. The layer Schliemann had uncovered  dated back to the Mycenaean Age, more than 1,000 years too early  for Homer. But inside the mound was indeed evidence for a city that had thrived  during the Bronze Age, with charred stone, broken arrowheads, and damaged human skeletons  suggesting a violent end. It was Troy VII,  contained in the middle layers and now ravaged for a second time  by Schliemann’s careless excavation. The settlement,  spanning some 200,000 square meters and home to as many as 10,000 people, thrived until around 1180 BCE. Its position at the southern entrance  of the Dardanelles strait would’ve made a formidable strategic  location for both defense and trade. Most importantly, there are the remains  of a massive fortification wall – perhaps the very same one from which Priam and Hector  once watched the Greeks approach. Of course, it’s difficult to be certain that these ruins are the true remains  of ancient Troy, and scholars still dispute whether the Trojan War  as described by Homer ever happened. Yet the evidence is strong enough that UNESCO has labelled Hisarlık the archeological site of Troy. Regardless of its identity, thanks to persistence, a bit of faith, and a lot of research, archaeologists are bringing  the long-buried secrets of an ancient, lost city to light.