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| Bodrum was once the ancient city of
Halicarnassus. The city was the birthplace of the famed ancient historian
Herodotus (485-425 BC), "the father of history," whose account of the
Greco-Persian wars gave history much of what is known about that period.
Halicarnassus best known in ancient times for its leadership of the empire
of Caria in the fourth century BC.
The city walls once extended for seven kilometers (more than four miles) and still visible in some areas. They didn't stay intact all that long, as they were partly destroyed by Alexander the Great in 334 BC.
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The most famous leader of Halicarnassus was King Mausolus, who led Caria from 375-353 BC. His name is familiar to us because of the colossal monument built as his tomb, the Mausoleum. Now considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, little remains of the enormous structure at the site. At right, you can see two displays from an alcove that serves as a museum at the ruined tomb. The poster depicts what the monument must have looked like, standing 41 meters (134 feet) tall, beginning with a podium, supporting a colonnade of 36 columns, then a pyramid above that, and a horse-drawn chariot steered by Mausolus and his wife/sister Artemisia at the very top. Construction on the tomb commenced during the king's lifetime, and finished by his widow, who continued to rule after her husband's death. Below the poster is one of the four original marble carvings still on the site. Many of the others are in the British Museum, but a rendering of the original frieze has been reconstructed for visitors. |
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The Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, based on the island
of Rhodes (Greece) in the fifteenth century AD, captured Bodrum and built
the Castle of Saint Peter to defend their community. Its five towers
represented the nationalities of the resident Knights. The photo at left
shows the extent of the fortress in relation to Bodrum's harbor, and the
terraces mark off the protective moat surrounding the castle.
The Knights left Bodrum and headed westward, eventually to Malta, after Suleiman the Magnificent conquered Rhodes in 1523. |
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Artifacts like these masks decorate the grounds of the Castle of Saint Peter. Several of the towers themselves and other rooms around the large courtyard have been converted into museum exhibitions, the most interesting of which make up the Museum of Underwater Archaeology. Many of the shipwrecks along Turkey's coast were first discovered by sponge divers. Often the clay amphorae on the ocean floor are discovered first, and further inspection finds wooden planks and other remnants of the sunken vessel. One room of the museum contains glass artifacts beginning from the Bronze Age until 1100 AD, including Mycenaean glass beads and Syrian glass ingots. Another Bronze Age wreck's cargo contained enough copper and tin ingots to make eleven tons of bronze. The ship also carried jewelry and statues of divinities. Another room reconstructs an eleventh-century AD ship from its recovered wooden timbers. |
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