Erected over the old Mycenean city of Troy, the newly established town of Ilium flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and gradually declined thereafter. In 480 BC, the Persian king Xerxes sacrificed 1,000 cattle at the sanctuary of Athena Ilias while marching towards Greece.
The temple of Athena wa unearthed by Schliemann during his 1868 excavations of Troy. After Schliemann, the site was further excavated under the direction of Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1893–94) and later Carl Blegen (1932–38).