Legends of the Lost With Megan Fox

The year is 1200 BC.

On the coast of modern-day Turkey,

1,000 Greek ships lay siege to the city of Troy.

For 10 years, the battle rages,

until the most cunning deception in history

helps the Greeks win the war.

We've been told that the Battle of Troy,

as recorded in Homer's "Iliad,"

is the greatest piece of fiction ever written.

But did it actually happen?

New archaeological evidence has begun to blur the line

between myth and reality like never before.

I think the Trojan War happened,

and I think all of this supports it.

That's exciting.

I'll hunt down the most legendary heroes...

What you see in front of you is the tomb of Achilles.

And gain special access to one of the greatest

archaeological finds of the modern age...

It's 3,500 years old?

I'll hold it like it was my newborn baby.

To find out if the greatest Greek myth ever told...

Troy would have been a lot like the D-Day of World War II.

Was not really a myth at all.

There should be something to find.

All across the world, our ancient ancestors

left behind towering mysteries and enchanting myths.

That looks like a magic wand.

As an actress, I've been lucky enough to peek

behind the curtain at some of these ancient sites...

I've never been in a crypt before.

And it's ignited an insatiable curiosity in me

to know more about these lost worlds...

It's amazing that, under our feet, there's so much history.

Some of which are still buried deep in our distant past.

That is amazing!

The only thing I ever loved in school

was studying Greek mythology, so I have to experience it.

I'm on the picturesque waters of the Aegean Sea,

headed to an island off the northwest coast of Turkey.

3,000 years ago,

this area could have been the backdrop

for the greatest Greek myth of all time... the Trojan War,

where powerful gods and men clashed like titans.

Most people view the story of the Trojan War as fantasy.

Maybe some of it was written in a more romantic way,

but I think there were historical facts

included in that.

Set around 1200 BC, this mythical war took place

between an attacking Greek force from southern Greece

and the Trojans who ruled the northwest coast

of modern-day Turkey.

The first written account of this conflict

comes 400 years later in Homer's epic poem "The Iliad,"

and recently, incredible new artifacts

have been discovered in this area

that suggest this epic war could have been real.

Stories that are in the Bible are equally as fantastical,

but they found the Walls of Jericho.

That is a real location,

and there was a real wall that fell.

So a lot of these stories

do contain legitimate historical information,

and I don't know why people are so hesitant to embrace that.

Could the pages of "The Iliad" be a treasure map

leading us to the truth of the Trojan War,

or is it just a fantastical work of fiction?

To find out, I'm on the island of Bozcaada

to meet a local legend.

- Hi. - Hello!

- Nice to have you. - How are you?

- Good to see you. - Good. How are you?

You look like a gentleman today.

I like your white trousers.

Thank you very much.

Dr. Haluk Sahin is a well-known Turkish journalist

and professor who has spent

over 2 decades deciphering the secrets of "The Iliad."

What was the catalyst for the Trojan War?

Well, the face that launched 1,000 ships,

the beautiful face of Helen, the queen.

According to Homer, the Trojan War began after Paris,

a Trojan prince, abducted the most beautiful woman

in the ancient world...

The Greek queen, Helen, took her back to Troy,

a heavily fortified city known throughout the ancient world

as being impenetrable.

In response, the Greeks sent a dream team of heroes

including the mighty Achilles, Ajax, and the cunning Odysseus,

plus thousands of elite soldiers to recover Helen

and to destroy the city.

Is this island written about in "The Iliad"?

Yes, Bozcaada, known as Tenedos in ancient times,

played a very important role in the Trojan War for the Greeks.

After they left the Trojan horse in front of the city,

they hid their ships behind the island,

waiting for a signal.

According to legend, after years of failing

to take the city of Troy,

the Greeks deployed one of the most cunning battle tactics

of all time...

the Trojan horse.

While pretending to retreat

and hiding their ships behind the island that I'm on,

the infamous Trojan horse was gifted to the people of Troy.

This massive wooden peace offering with Greek soldiers

inside gained them access inside the city gates.

The Greek soldiers then unleashed an ambush attack,

and the city of Troy fell.

Goztepe is right up there.

It's the highest point on the island.

Using the words of Homer,

Haluk is going to try and pinpoint for me

exactly where this war would have played out.

Here we are.

Okay, this is our island, the island of Bozcaada,

known as Tenedos in ancient times,

and Homer talks about Troy being across from Tenedos,

and here we are.

See some of the white buildings over there?

- That's Troy. - So cool, wow.

And if we go this way, there is Mount Ida,

and gods Zeus and Hera came to watch the war from Mount Ida.

About 70 miles to the southeast of Troy is Mount Ida

where, according to Homer,

gods came to watch the epic war unfold.

You can say, like, "Look, we're standing here."

Homer described all of this.

He was familiar with the geography.

He could have traveled here and seen it,

but there's still a lot more dots that have to be connected.

Did Homer simply reference recognizable landmarks

to make this mythical story sound more authentic,

or was he reporting on real events?

To find out, I'm headed to the Turkish mainland,

where the ruins of the ancient city of Troy are believed to be.

Three miles from the Aegean Sea

are 4,000-year-old ruins, first discovered in 1870.

Could these crumbling walls and massive foundations

really be the mighty city at the center of Homer's legend?

Let me just climb over this mountain here.

- How are you? - Brian Rose.

- Megan. Nice to meet you. - Good to meet you.

I'm joined by world-renowned archaeologist Brian Rose,

who has dedicated 25 years to this site,

and he literally wrote the book on it.

The geographical references to the site of Troy

in "The Iliad" only match this one,

but there are a lot of mysteries that still surround the site.

Although these ruins have been studied for nearly 200 years,

no archaeologist has been able to definitively prove

whether or not this is Homer's Troy

because it's one of the most complicated

archaeological sites in the world.

One of the reasons it's hard to understand the site

is that occupation here lasted for 4,500 years.

Do you just mean different people lived here?

- Yeah. - Okay.

Different people lived here, starting around 3000 BC,

going to about 1500 AD,

and so we have these layers of different settlements.

So how many cultures or people have lived here,

like, if you cut a cake open, you can count the layers?

Right, so we would say that there are nine layers,

one built on top of the other.

For thousands of years, this city was built

and rebuilt on top of itself,

creating a quagmire of walls and roads.

Through painstaking investigation

and high-tech digital reconstruction,

archaeologists have been able to reconstruct the layers.

The first dates to 3000 BC.

That's 500 years before Egypt's pyramids were built.

The next layer, city 2, is from 2400 BC,

right around the time when the pyramids

were believed to be completed.

All in all, evidence of nine completely different cities

can be found on the site, one on top of the other.

Because of these layers,

the city is incredibly difficult to understand,

but Troy VI, which is roughly between 1800 and 1300 BC,

that's about late Bronze Age, and that's the phase

that a lot of people associate with the Troy of Homer.

Can you explain why we believe that it's in the sixth strata?

Because the fortification walls were incredibly strong,

5 meters thick, over 10 meters high,

that we can understand in accordance with the strength

that Homer described the city as having had.

Homer said the walls of Troy were so strong

that they looked like they were built by the god Poseidon.

Here, at level 6, the walls are more than 32 feet tall

and 16 feet wide,

as thick as the Great Wall of China and 10 feet taller.

But Homer also described Troy as being a mighty city

with tens of thousands of people,

and all in all, level 6 is only 650 feet across.

Is this really the great city of Troy?

The way it's described,

I would've imagined it being larger.

You're exactly right, but, with remote sensing,