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Ancient Troy was once a mythical city, known only through the text of Homer’s Iliad. In 1870, however, the German archeologist Heinrich Schlieman discovered the ruins of Troy (and several cities above and beneath it) in northwest Turkey. He located the city by scrutinizing the text of the Iliad, and laboriously exploring the area on foot.

Modern scientists and archeologists use high technology such as satellite imagery to aid their search for ancient historical sites. This image of the ruins of Troy from the IKONOS satellite uses four meter resolution color data.

For more information about IKONOS, visit the Space Imaging web site.

To learn about another way to study the Earth’s past using satellite data, read Finding Fossils from Space.

Image processing by Robert Simmon. Data copyright Space Imaging.