Troy Museum Pushing for 1m Visitors by 2024 – You’ve probably all heard the story of Troy, and you may have even seen the movie, which was released in 2002, with Brad Pitt and Eric Bana in lead roles. Essentially in Greek Mythology, Troy was the ‘Impenetrable’ city, which was the epicentre of the Trojan War fought between the Trojans and the Greeks after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. After many victories for the Trojans, they were duped by the Greek-Built Trojan Horse, and the city was eventually conquered.
The actual City’s history is far-less Hollywood-esque having been repeatedly conquered, destroyed and re-built during it’s 4000 years of occupation. In fact, there’s so much history to the city that there are nine category levels of archaeology with each new version of the city being built on the ruins of the previous one.
Archaeology actually started on the site in 1871, and being such an important site, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998, with a new museum opening at the entrance to the ruins in 2019. Covering a history of approximately 5,000 years with an indoor area of 12,750 sqm, the museum quickly gaining international recognition winning the 2020 European Museum of the Year Special Appreciation Award, and the 2020 + 2021 European Museum Academy Special Award.
Situated in the Northwestern province of Çanakkale, the museum will host around 800,000 visitors by the end of this year, with a target of 1m visitors in 2024, making it one of the most popular attractions in the whole of Turkiye.
‘It’s become a global phenomenon’ said Director Rıdvan Gölcük, ‘We started 2023 with great expectations and the number of visitors in January was approximately 2.5 times higher than the previous year’. He went on to add that ‘Considering this year, the Troy Ruins and Troy Museum together will break the visitor record, we estimate that we will easily reach 1 million visitors in 2024’.
Definitely worth visiting, the Museum was also given the Traveler Choice Awards two years in a row by Trip Advisor. It’s easy to see why that the Troy Museum is pushing for 1m visitors by 2024.
