This 2004 BBC documentary details the archeological discovery of the real city of Troy in ancient Greece, which is a city that was previously assumed to only be a myth.  It is explained that the city was in fact destroyed during the Bronze Age at around the same time it happened in the myth.  The city existed at a strategically important costal trade route between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

Following are points from the video:

— In 1870, an Archeologist Heinrich Schliemann found the remains of a fortified coastal city in present-day northwest Turkey, which was a part of ancient Greece thousands of years ago, and he suspected that it was the mythical city of Troy, prompting him and others to search for clues since then to support his theory.

— In the story of Troy, Helen was was a Greek queen who left the King of Sparta to be with the prince of the city of Troy, which resulted in a war where Troy was besieged and eventually infiltrated through its residents being tricked into bringing a large wooden horse into its gates which secretly contained soldiers.

— The story of Troy was composed by the Greek poet Homer almost three thousand years ago in the “Iliad of Homer.”  It was written in the 8th century BC, but it is thought to have been written about a time hundreds of years earlier in 1,2000 BC during the late Bronze Age.

— Archeologists continue to examine the site today, which contains nine layers dating back to 2,500 BC which was the time when the pyramids in Egypt were constructed.

— The city that was discovered was heavily fortified with high walls, however archeologists initially doubted that it was Troy because it seemed to be too small to match the description, however modern studies starting in 1988 have revealed that much of the outlying areas of the city were still buried underneath the surrounding countryside.

— Evidence reveals that a war actually did occur in the city at around the time when the Trojan War was claimed to have taken place, as revealed in one of the layers that correspond with that time period.  It is shown that close-quarter fighting and burning happened in the city at the time, along with the existence of hastily buried partially burned skeletons and piles of “sling pellets” waiting to be used that were abandoned after the battle was lost.

— In the story, the city was besieged for ten years by the Mycenaeans.  At the time during the late Bronze Age, the city of Mycenae in present-day Greece was considered to be the center of the Greek power.  Graves from within the citadel walls in Mycenae confirm that it was a warrior culture where high ranking people were buried with death masks and many weapons such as swords.  The Mycenae Citadel was massively additionally fortified at around that time, which shows that they possessed the wealth to be able to accomplish such a construction.  However, the Mycenaean region did not contain a lot of natural resources to give them such wealth, so they needed to find it in other ways.

— A shipwreck was found on the seafloor under 50 meters of water down the coast from Troy, and it contained enough copper ingots to make 11 tons of bronze.  It is the largest collection of Bronze Age goods to have been found anywhere.  The discovery reals that Troy was a trade port at a very important strategic position on the Straight of Dardanelles, which was the gateway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

— Troy was on the western edge of the Hittite Empire, which is modern-day Turkey.  The Hittite Empire was a “super power” during the late Bronze Age, where they sacked Babylon and fought battles with the pharaohs of Egypt.  Written records exist that detail the conflicts that happened with the Hittite Empire at the time, and archeologists have tried to find if they mentioned Troy, but the situation at first seemed hopeless because no one knew what they called it; however many references of a conflict in an area they called “Wilusa” were discovered, which is a similar name to an ancient Greek name for Troy.  The tablets described “festering conflicts” with the Mycenaeans along the coast, spread over two hundred years, with the tablets saying that Myconian warriors once fought at the gates of Wilusa.

— Recent discoveries have reveled that Troy and Wilusa were in fact the same city.  Ancient tablets exist that describe the Hittite army moving westward toward the city, and an additional discovery of an inscription on a mountain pass has revealed that the army did in fact go specifically there, proving that the records actually were referring to Troy.

— Water tunnels under Wilusa were described in the Hittite tablets, therefore the dates of deposits in the water tunnels under Troy were examined, which revealed that construction of the tunnels started in 2,600 BC showing that they were in use when the tablet was written, which was final definitive proof that Troy and Wilusa were the same place.

— The Hittite tablets described them fighting at Troy in the late Bronze Age, which they were doing for more than two centuries.  The tablets show that Troy was actually an ally of the Hittites, and the Greek Mycenaeans where invading it which prompted the Hittite army to come to defend the position.

— Therefore, it is shown that the conflict which destroyed the city was due to a war between the Mycenaeans and Hittites over the control of that strategic position, but there is no evidence of the mythical aspects of the story of Troy such as the characters involved or the use of the wooden horse.