Troy Ancient City Fought over for thousands of years & included now on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list, Troy continues to inspire us with its history. Over the millennia the Dardanelles strait has been the scene of countless wars owing to its strategic position between two continents (Europe & Asia) & two seas (the Mediterranean & the Black Sea). From the Trojan War, thought to have taken place in 1180 B.C. & chronicled by the Anatolian epic poet Homer in his immortal Iliad, to the Battle of Gallipoli in the First World War, the purpose has always been the same: to rule East & West by controlling the Dardanelles.