valleys of the Mendere and the Dumbrek Su meet, is the plateau of Hissarlik, with its nine strata of settlements dating from an age of thirty centuries before Christ to the time of the acropolis of the Roman Ilion, which reached its end about fire hundred years after the Christian era—a spot in full view of the traveler as he enters the Dardanelles en route to Constantinople.
The excavations (1893–94) which Dörpfeld continued after Schliemann's death (1890) show in the sixth stratum from the bottom a Mycenaean city built in terraces, with a mighty circuit wall, three massive towers, three gates, and numerous buildings. For this stately acropolis Dörpfeld claims the title of Homeric Troy, and few archaeologists who have stood under its imposing walls are inclined to dispute this claim. He notes the following characteristics (Troja und Ilion, pp. 601–612) in which the VI City agrees with the description in the Homeric poems:
1. Its low site in the Troad corresponds to that described in Υ, 216, "Sacred Ilios, built upon the plain." The epithets "well-walled" (εὐτειχής), "steep" (αἰπεινός), "sheer" (αἰπύς), apply to its high and precipitous walls, which to-day impress every visitor with their massiveness and strength. "Beetling Ilios" (Ἴλιος ὀφρυόεσσα, Χ, 411) appropriately describes the abrupt slope of the northern side of the plateau, while "windy" (ἠνεμόεις) fully characterizes the plain swept by the breezes from the Hellespont.
2. The well-wrought stones, as seen in the South Citadel Wall, the towers, and several buildings, show that the poet's description of dwellings built of "polished stone" (ξεστοῖο λίθοιο) was not based on the imag-
