Okay, boys and girls, gather ’round for a tale! A legendary city, buried and thought to be nothing but an old wives’ tale, has been uncovered by an archeologist determined to prove that legends are more than just myths and flights of fancy, holding real truth within them.

Today, I speak of Troy (and if you happen to be named Troy, sorry, but I’m not talking about you). Troy is at the center of a couple Greece’s largest literary myths, the birthplace of both the great Trojan War and one of the most well known Greek tales. As it is greatly known, let me just summarize for anyone unfamiliar.

A prince (known as Paris) steals away the wife of the Spartan king (her name is Helen), and the king (Menelaus) pursues with his army. Of course the Prince of Troy isn’t without an army of his own and the two forces fight to a standstill until the Greeks hatch an ingenious plan! The Greeks (under Odysseus’ instructions) build a giant hollow wooden horse (known as the Trojan Horse), and hide themselves inside. The Trojans, thinking the Greeks have given up and retreated, take the giant wooden horse into their fortress not suspecting that there are Spartan troops concealed inside. This mistake ultimately leads to the Trojans’ downfall.

There is more (much MUCH more) to the story, but I was trying to give the Cliff Notes. For centuries, people thought that Troy was nothing more than a legend, but one man refused to believe that it was just a story. His name was Heinrich Schliemann, a German archaeologist who traveled through the Aegean region in the 1870s searching for the legendary Troy, then found it.

Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t this insanely cool?! I mean an ancient city known only to us through legend, is uncovered and throws established archeology and history itself into a tizzy! Ever since Schliemann’s discovery, anytime we read an ancient myth we have to pause and wonder just how much of it might be true. After all, if Troy existed, doesn’t that mean there’s a chance that other mythological cities and locations, such as Lemuria or El Dorado or Atlantis, may exist as well.

This whole story makes me smile for a number of reasons, the best of which though is that this little tale is proof that even today there are many things yet undiscovered, so many things to wonder about, dream about, and if you’re lucky, perhaps discover and share with the world.