Watch Legend of Troy: The Epic Rise and Fall

The city of Troy continues to reveal new secrets as archaeologists identify the impact of nature and conflict on its remains. The discovery of lost civilizations, such as the Hittites, and the translation of thousand-year-old records offer new evidence that a Trojan War might really have happened. New insights found deep within an ancient tomb hint at catastrophic climate change, and the study of ancient DNA suggests warfare and migration. These discoveries build evidence that the fall of Troy was just one piece of a series of events that defined an era. Over 150 years after these headline-grabbing discoveries, Troy still has the potential to offer new secrets.

The legends of the Trojan War and the lost city of Troy captivated countless generations and have been handed down in the very earliest surviving works of Western literature, most notably The Iliad and The Odyssey. In 1860, a German millionaire, Heinrich Schliemann, set out to find the lost city of Troy and prove the Trojan War really happened, sparking a golden age of archaeology. But when this self-taught archaeologist went in search of more evidence, his own findings would call into question his most cherished theories. Much of what Schliemann had discovered was wrong, leaving it to future generations to continue the quest. We visit present-day Troy using cutting-edge technology to understand how Schliemann not only discovered the remains of Troy but also destroyed much of the evidence he was looking for.