Achilleion (Troad)

Achilleion was an ancient Greek city on a promontory called Besika Burnu in the southwest of the Troad region of Anatolia, about 8 kilometers south of Sigeion in what is now the Canakkale Province of Turkey. First attested in the early 6th century BC as a fortified outpost, it became known for its association with the hero Achilles through a nearby tumulus at Besiktepe that was regarded in antiquity as his tomb, drawing visits from Alexander the Great in 334 BC and the emperor Caracalla in AD 216. The city lost its independence around 306 to 281 BC when King Lysimachus merged nearby communities into Troy, and it was abandoned by the mid-2nd century BC.