Troad

Troad (Greek Τρῳάς ) is the ancient name of a landscape southeast of the Dardanelles ( Hellespont ) in the northwestern part of Anatolia. The Troad is in Asia Minor and surrounds the remains of the ancient city of Troy. It is separated by a mountain range from the rest of Anatolia.

Topography

The area is crossed by two rivers, the Scamander ( Karamenderes ) and the Simois. The Troad is mostly from the branches of about 1750 m altitude steeply rising wooded Ida mountains ( Kaz Dagi ) taken between which only the valley of the Scamander drags on, the more down to the Hellespont broader scale levels by flows.

Origin of the name

Troy and the Troad are able to identify according to the theory of the orientalists Frank Starke with the Wilusa mentioned in Hittite sources. According to his theory, the Mycenaeans Wilusa formed to Wilios, then it was Ilios or Ilion, as the Greeks around 1000 BC the "W" ( digamma ) in their language ( although not in all dialects ) were eliminated.

The Troas - named after the prehistoric (maybe the Illyrians related ) people of the Trojans - was the site of the Homeric Trojan War. Thereafter, the Troad, especially on the coast, populated by Peloponnesian Achaeans and Boeotian Aiolern while were remnants of the old, once closely associated with the Trojans of people Dardanians or Teucri to the time of Persian rule inland. More important places of historical time are especially Abydos, Alexandria Troas, Assos, Dardanus, Lampsacus and Neandria.

History

The landscape was in the Diadoch to Mysia region. In the Roman Empire it was part of the Roman province of Asia. Under Byzantine rule, the Troas region belonged to the Aegean islands, and during the Ottoman Empire, it was part of Bigha.

Today the Troas is part of the Turkish province of Çanakkale. At the southwestern Cape Bababurun lies with Babakale the westernmost point of Asia Minor mainland.