00:00 The Trojan War, one of the oldest stories in the world, has been the subject of famous works of literature and was depicted in Greek and Roman art, but its historicity has been questioned due to the delay in the writing of the epic poems that made it famous.

01:53 The Trojan War was sparked by the abduction of Helen of Troy by Paris, which led to a 10-year siege of Troy by the Greek army.

03:37 After a decade-long siege, the Greeks tricked the Trojans by leaving behind a wooden horse filled with hidden soldiers, which led to the Greeks sacking Troy and Helen returning to Sparta.

05:11 The story of the Trojan War slipped into legend and history, but it remained a foundational story for the entire Greek and Roman world, with the Trojan prince Aeneas becoming the ancestor of the Romans, and while historians initially assumed the story was a fable, the Romans and Greeks had no doubt that Troy was real.

06:50 Troy's location was eventually identified as the Turkish site known as Hisserlik, and the first excavations were conducted by Frank Calvert and later Heinrich Schleeman.

08:30 Archaeological research at the site of Troy has revealed a city that was established about 5,500 years ago and had some level of occupation until the year 500, with 46 different layers of strata divided across 10 different major layers, and while there is no way to prove the events of the Trojan War, the discovery of Troy itself is largely credited to Heinrich Schleeman despite criticisms of his techniques.

10:16 The fact that Troy was discovered lends credibility to the general story of the Trojan War, which has stuck with us for over 3,000 years.