In ancient times, it was an impor­tant port city. It con­trolled the pas­sage through the Dar­d­anelles Strait, through which Greek ships sailed to the Bospho­rus and fur­ther to the Black Sea. There were nine set­tle­ments on this site, replac­ing each oth­er over 4,000 years. Nowa­days, it is an archae­o­log­i­cal park and one of the main attrac­tions of north­west­ern Turkey.