Ancient City Of Troy Was Destroyed By An Earthquake That Ended The Trojan War – Archaeologists Say

AncientPages.com - Famous by the Greco-Trojan War that is the subject of Homer's epic poem The Iliad, the ancient city of Troy remains one of the most important and interesting archaeological sites.

With its 4,000 years of history, the city of Troy in Turkey continues to surprise during excavations. It has long been assumed that the city of Troy was destroyed by the ancient Greeks, but recent evidence offers a completely different version of the site’s history.

Drawing reconstruction of Troy in its sixth phase, with the citadel (acropolis) surrounded by a lower town, equipped with defensive walls.

It is true that Troy was destroyed on several occasions and a new city would be built on top of it each time. However, some of it destruction was caused not only by humans. It now seems clear that also nature played an important role in the history of the ancient city.

Researchers from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University have found proof the city of Troy was destroyed by an earthquake that ended the Trojan War.

The city’s population took precautions against earthquakes by improving their construction techniques.

"We can see that Troy's ancient engineers managed to keep the magnificent walls of the city standing for thousands of years thanks to these [anti-earthquake] measures," Professor Rüstem Aslan said.

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"Especially in the era, we call Troy-6, in the 1300s BC, we can see marks of damage on the castle walls. It's very clear that some large stones were ripped apart by an earthquake. So we can say this - the city that Homer describes as resisting siege for 10 years in the Iliad was destroyed by an earthquake and abandoned soon after,” Professor Aslan said.

Walls of Troy, Hisarlik, Turkey - Image credit: CherryX, Wikipedia

The Trojans learned from this disaster and made structural changes.

Just like the Harappan Civilization built massive protection walls against tsunami 5,000 years ago, the Trojans constructed new defensive walls with deeper foundations and a sloping structure that made them more resistant to earthquakes.

Scientists now suggest the ancient city of Troy could offer clues on how to make modern buildings more earthquake-resistant.

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