Locations

Bodrum

Bodrum is a port city in Mugla Province, southwestern Turkey, on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. The population was 40,795 at the 2020 census. The surrounding towns and villages had an additional population of 100,522, with a total of 136,317 inhabitants residing within the district's borders.

The city was called Halicarnassus by the Ancient Greeks (Ἁλικαρνᾱσσός). Halicarnassus later fell under Persian rule and become the capital city of satrapy of Caria. Mausolus ruled Caria from here, and after his death in 353 BC, his wife built the Mausoleum of Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Macedonian forces laid siege to the city and captured it in 334 BCE. After Alexander's death, the city passed to successive Hellenistic rulers and was briefly an independent kingdom until 129 BCE when it came under Roman rule.
A series of natural disasters and repeated pirate attacks wreaked havoc on the area and the city lost its importance by the time of the Byzantine era. The Knights Hospitaller arrived in 1402 and used the remains of the Mausoleum as a quarry to build Bodrum Castle. The castle and its town became known as Petronium, whence the modern name Bodrum derives. After the conquest of Rhodes by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522 the town fell under Ottoman control as the Knights Hospitaller relocated to Europe.
The abundance of visitors has also contributed to Bodrum's retail and service industry. Milas–Bodrum Airport and Kos International Airport are the main airports that serve the city. The port has ferries to other nearby Turkish and Greek ports and islands, Kos being the most important one. Most of the public transportation in the city is based on local share taxis and buses.
Etymology
The modern name Bodrum derives from the town's medieval name Petronium, which has its roots in the Hospitaller Castle of St. Peter. In classical antiquity Bodrum was known as Halicarnassus (Ancient Greek: Ἁλικαρνασσός, Turkish: Halikarnas), a major city in ancient Caria. The suffix -ᾱσσός (-assos) of Greek Ἁλικαρνᾱσσός is indicative of a substrate toponym, meaning that an original non-Greek name influenced or established the place's name. It has been proposed that -καρνᾱσσός (-carnassos) part is cognate with Luwian word "ha+ra/i-na-sà", which means fortress. If so, the city's ancient name was probably borrowed from Carian, a Luwic language native to pre-Greek Western Anatolia. The Carian name for Halicarnassus has been tentatively identified with (alos k̂arnos) in inscriptions
History
Halicarnassus (Ancient Greek: Ἁλικαρνᾱσσός, romanized: Halikarnassós or Ἀλικαρνασσός Alikarnassós; Turkish: Halikarnas) was an ancient Greek city at the site of modern Bodrum in Turkey.Halicarnassus was founded by Dorian Greeks, and the figures on its coins, such as the head of Medusa, Athena or Poseidon, or the trident, support the statement that the mother cities were Troezen and Argos. The inhabitants appear to have accepted Anthes, a son of Poseidon, as their legendary founder, as mentioned by Strabo, and were proud of the title of Antheadae. The Carian name for Halicarnassus has been tentatively identified with Alosδkarnosδ in inscriptions. At an early period Halicarnassus was a member of the Doric Hexapolis, which included Kos, Cnidus, Lindos, Kameiros and Ialysus; but it was expelled from the league when one of its citizens, Agasicles, took home the prize tripod which he had won in the Triopian games, instead of dedicating it according to custom to the Triopian Apollo.
In the early 5th century Halicarnassus was under the sway of Artemisia I of Caria (also known as Artemesia of Halicarnassus,, who made herself famous as a naval commander at the battle of Salamis. Of Pisindalis, her son and successor, little is known; but Lygdamis, the tyrant of Halicarnussus, who next attained power, is notorious for having put to death the poet Panyasis and causing Herodotus, possibly the best known Halicarnassian, to leave his native city
Persian rule
The city later fell under Persian rule. Under the Persians, it was the capital city of the satrapy of Caria, the region that had since long constituted its hinterland and of which it was the principal port. Its strategic location ensured that the city enjoyed considerable autonomy. Archaeological evidence from the period such as the recently discovered Salmakis (Kaplankalesi) Inscription, now in Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, attest to the particular pride its inhabitants had developed.
Mausolus ruled Caria from here, nominally on behalf of the Persians and independently in practical terms, for much of his reign from 377 to 353 BC. When he died in 353 BC, Artemisia II of Caria, who was both his sister and his widow, employed the ancient Greek architects Satyros and Pythis, and the four sculptors Bryaxis, Scopas, Leochares and Timotheus to build a monument, as well as a tomb, for him. The word "mausoleum" derives from the structure of this tomb. It was a temple-like structure decorated with reliefs and statuary on a massive base. Today only the foundations and a few pieces of sculpture remain.
Hellenistic and Roman period
Alexander the Great laid siege to the city after his arrival in Carian lands and, together with his ally, the queen Ada of Caria, captured it after fighting in 334 BC. Later after Alexander's death, however, rule of the city passed to Antigonus I (311 BC), Lysimachus (after 301 BC) and the Ptolemies (281–197 BC) and was briefly an independent kingdom until 129 BC when it came under Roman rule. A series of earthquakes destroyed much of the city as well as the great Mausoleum while repeated pirate attacks from the Mediterranean wreaked further havoc on the area. By the time of the early Christian Byzantine era, when Halicarnassus was an important Bishopric, there was little left of the shining city of Mausoluos
Medieval era
Crusader Knights arrived in 1402 and used the remains of the Mausoleum as a quarry to build the still impressively standing Bodrum Castle (Castle of Saint Peter), which is a well-preserved example of late Crusader architecture in the east Mediterranean. The Knights Hospitaller (Knights of St. John) were given permission to build it by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed I, after Tamerlane had destroyed their previous fortress located in İzmir's inner bay. The castle and its town became known as Petronium, whence the modern name Bodrum derives.
In 1522, Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the base of the Crusader knights on the island of Rhodes, who then relocated first briefly to Sicily and later permanently to Malta, leaving the Castle of Saint Peter and Bodrum to the Ottoman Empire.
Modern era
Bodrum was a quiet town of fishermen and sponge divers until the early 20th century. In June 1915, during World War I, 18 Greek Christian inhabitants and one girl aged 16 were slaughtered by Turks. In her book Bodrum, Fatma Mansur points out that the presence of a large community of bilingual Cretan Turks, coupled with the conditions of free trade and access with the islands of the Southern Dodecanese until 1935, made the town less provincial. The fact that traditional agriculture was not a very rewarding activity in the rather dry peninsula also prevented the formation of a class of large landowners. Bodrum has no notable history of political or religious extremism either. A first nucleus of intellectuals started to form after the 1950s around the writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, who had first come here in exile two decades before and was charmed by the town to the point of adopting the pen name Halikarnas Balıkçısı ('The Fisherman of Halicarnassus')
Main sights
The Castle of St. Peter was built by the Knights Hospitaller. The Castle of St. Peter, also known as Bodrum Castle, is one of the major attractions on the peninsula. The castle was built by the Knights Hospitaller during the 15th century and the walls of the fortification contains some pieces of the Mausoleum ruins, as it was used as a source for construction materials. The Castle of Bodrum retains its original design and character of the Knights' period and reflects Gothic architecture. It also contains the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, a museum opened by the Turkish government in 1962 for the underwater discoveries of ancient shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea. In 2016 the castle was inscribed in the Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey. The castle is currently under renovation since 2017 and only some parts of it are accessible for touristic purposes.
Built in the fourth century BC, the ruins of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus are also one of the main sights in Bodrum. It was a tomb designed by Greek architects and built for Mausolus, a satrap in the Persian Empire, and his sister-wife Artemisia II of Caria. The structure was once defined as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but by the 12th century CE had mostly been destroyed. Today the ruins of the tomb continue to attract both domestic and international tourists. It is planned to turn the ruins into an open-air museum.
Apart from the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, there are also other museums located on the peninsula. The Zeki Müren Art Museum is a museum dedicated to Turkish classical musician Zeki Müren. After his death, the house in which the artist lived in Bodrum during the last years of his life was transformed into the Zeki Muren Art Museum by the order of the Ministry of Culture and was opened to the public on 8 June 2000. The Bodrum Maritime Museum is another museum of Bodrum that aims to conduct activities regarding the classification, exhibition, restoration, conservation, storage and safekeeping of the historical documents, works and objects that are important for the maritime history of the city. The Bodrum City Museum is a minor museum in the city center that presents the general history of the Bodrum peninsula

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