Elaeus was located at the southern end of the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles) near the southernmost point of the Thracian Chersonese (now the Gallipoli peninsula) in modern-day Turkey.

It also profited from its strategic location on the main trade route between Europe and Asia, as well as the possibility of controlling shipping to Crimea.

His tomb at Elaeus lay on the European coast opposite Troy, and became a destination for pilgrimages by members of the cult of Protesilaus.

[7] A stele dating from the year 340 BCE, at which time Elaeus was governed by Athens, contains an inscription in Ionian script.

[11] Constantine's fleet in the Civil wars of the Tetrarchy, 323 CE, took up its moorings at Elaeus, while that of Licinius was anchored off the tomb of Ajax, in the Troad.

Fortuitous excavations were thus undertook under fire;[14] operations were mainly supervised by Assyriologist Édouard Dhorme and exhumed artefacts were sent to the Louvre.