Hisarlik, a hill near the Dardanelles Straits in the northeast of

Asia Minor. Is this where the extravagant city of Troy, with its
impermeable walls stood? Is it truly the site of the Trojan War?
Were the thousand Greek ships, led by King Agamemnon
launched on these beaches, when Paris and Helen Eloped? Is
this where the Greek Hero Achilles killed Prince of Troy Hector,
and dragged his body on the back of his chariot across the
battlefield? Or was the war just fiction, only Homers
imagination? I am Wilhelm Dorpfeld, and I believe that Homers
tale is not just a story, but written based on true events! I
believe this great city existed, and the fall of this city was indeed
by the means of a war.
I am an Archaeologist who specialises in Ancient Greek
Architecture. I was born in 1853 in Barmen, Germany. I studied
at the Academy of Architecture in Berlin from 1873 1876. You
may not think so, but Archaeology and Architecture make a
great pairing. When excavating the Olympia site in Greece, I
developed a method of dating ancient sites based on the strata
in which objects were found and types of building materials
used. Afterwards, I was going to become a classics scholar, but
archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann approached me after
learning about my great excavation and my revolutionised idea
of archaeology. He recognised my ability to untangle building
structures, and I could provide him what he had lacked, an
architects eye. And thus, I became his assistant, and I started to
uncover the mysteries of Troy that lie in Hisarlik.
In 1884, together with Master Schliemann, I headed to Tiryns,
located in Argolis in the Peloponnese, north of Nauplion. Here is
the supposed home of the hero, Herakles, or as you might
know, Hercules. Tyrins was led of King Diomedes, who according
to Homer sent 80 Black ships to help the Greeks. It was a palace
that existed around 1300 BC. Here we would find an impression
of the world of the Bronze Age, the time when the Trojan War
must have taken place. And we had found a whole mass of
pottery! The same that Schliemann had previously found in
Mycenae. On the left was what was found in Tiryns and the
right, what Schliemann found at Mycenae.
Fragments of wall paintings of the heroic age were found on top
of the ruins of the palace! And I could see the faces of the men
who lived at the time of the Trojan War. Things had finally
started to fit together! Together with what Schliemann found at
Mycenae, the world Homer had described really reflected a
world that actually existed! Homers tale must not be entirely
fiction, if we can find such similarities of the world in the Iliad
and what we can found now in Mycenae and Tiryns. And Troy
would have looked like this! I can feel us getting closer to
proving that a city described by Homer is real, and that the
Trojan War had really taken place.


In March 1890, we headed back to Hissarlick. This is the twelfth
time in twenty years for Schliemann. The more I looked at what
he thought for so many years was the Homeric Troy that is troy
2, the more things didnt fit. It did not resemble what we had
found in Mycenae and Tiryns. In fact, there was entirely no trace
of communication with the Mycenaeans. It must have been
from an entirely different time. The place was just simply too
small! Had Troy been this small fortified place, a few hundred
men would have sufficed to take it, and homers Iliad would be
total Fiction!!
I began to separate all the different layers of the cities, using my
architectural eye and my revolutionised method of dating
different times of the city using the Strata. This is when we
began to dig 20 metres outside what Schliemann for so long
thought was Troy. And we had found it. For so long we had been
looking in the wrong place! Finally we found it, a connection
from this place in Hissarlick, and a world in Mycenae was
discovered! What you can see in the red, is what I think is the
Troy I Have spent so long looking for it. I believe that I had
found the City of Prium



We had found a house, a royal house, a grand house! It
resembled the palace we found in Tyrins! And what did we find
inside? Mycenaean pottery. Exactly the kind we had found in
Mycenae and Tiryns. This is proof. Proof that this city existed at
the same time as Mycenae and Tyrins, proof that they traded
proof that there was communication from Troy with Mycenae! I
had finally found it. And Schliemann and I had promised to
come back and investigate and marvellous discovery.
Unfortunately, Master Schliemann passed away on Christmas
the very next year, and Hisarlik was left in my hands. I was to
take up his legacy and prove the doubters wrong.
As an architect, I could see it all so clearly, what Schliemann
could not see before. I could see the buildings, fragments of
houses, previously destroyed by Schliemann, fragments of a
circuit wall, and a northern wall circuit destroyed years ago. No
one else would be able to put these all together. I spent years
uncovering this city under 50 feet of earth and ruins. I had
found a watch tower. I believe this to be the Tower of Illion!
Walls 25 feet high now but must have been at least 30 feet of
limestone! And I could see it; I could just imagine Patroclus
climbing these angled walls with his bare hands and falling all
three times.


I could recall the city in Homers Iliad, and how similar it was to
what I had found, where he describes Troys walls as well built
and slanted, walls that made Mycenae look crude. The beautiful
architecture indicated that it must have been the most beautiful
fortress in the Aegean, just like homer said. The long
arguments over troy is over, the actual remains of the city of
Prium and Hector have come to light, Schliemann has been
vindicated, the Trojans have Triumphed
I had finally proved that there was a late Bronze Age citadel with
Mycenaean contacts, in the right place by the mouth of the
Dardanelles, with unmistakable resemblance to what Homer
had described. Now I hear Carl Blegan is out there to destroy my
romantic vision, and has been saying that it was an Earthquake
that had destroyed the city. But there were great signs of fire
in many places, the upper parts of the walls and towers had
been topped, inner buildings had been levelled, evidently, the
city had been destroyed by the hands of an enemy.
I believe that I am the most important of excavators, being able
to piece together the parts of the city. I was the one who had
found the Homeric Troy. And I wish all the best to all those in
future, those who can further prove the historicity of Troy, and I
look forward to our great combined contributions towards
archaeology.