Today we took the bus over to the city of Bodrum, located on the southeast side of the peninsula. The bus station is only a few blocks from the marina. The busses are nice and run every 10 minutes. It was a 20 minute ride across the peninsula, most of it inland, with only the last few minutes along the coast.
The landscape is similar to Crete, with many olive trees, a few evergreens, fig trees and cactus about, lots of dry grass, and low growing shrubbery. It is quite hilly, but the hills aren’t nearly as tall and steep as those in Crete. It reminds us of the stretch of land between Escondido and Temecula in Southern California, where there is tons of vacant land, then suddenly a track home development in the middle of nowhere, then back to more vacant land, then more track homes. The track homes are mostly typical Mediterranean style, concrete, blocky multi-stories with flat roofs. In addition to the finished buildings, there is a lot of construction going on, as well. Some of the buildings look like they will never be finished, but most projects look like they are actively being worked on.
We could tell when we were close to the city because suddenly the road was full of industrial type stores. The city is built on a hill, with the center of town being the waterfront and the rest of town spanning up the mountain from the coast. Almost all the structures are white.
The heart of Bodrum is the along the bay. Near the city center, the streets are narrow, buildings adjoin, and the buildings are all old fashioned and different. Bodrum is an ancient city, and while there are a few ancient looking structures, most look old by modern standards, not ancient. Farther up the hill, the feel of the city is much different. The streets are wider, the buildings do not necessarily adjoin, the buildings are modern looking, and there are several small track developments around. We could be completely wrong, but we get the sense that Bodrum has grown rapidly over the last 20 or 30 years and that the city has expanded quite a bit farther up the hill in that time.
Bodrum, formerly called Helicarnassos, is famous for two things. First is the spectacular tomb of the Carian (indigenous people group of the area) King Mausolus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a temple-like structure decorated with reliefs and statuary on a massive base, built in 353 BC. The word “mausoleum” is derived from this tomb. It stood for 1700 years and was finally destroyed by earthquakes. The Knights Hospitalier used most of the pieces in the construction of their castle/fort. The second thing Bodrum is famed for is that the Greek historian Herodotus (485 425 BC) is from here.
From the bus terminal, it was just a few blocks walk to the water. Near the castle, the car traffic ends and the narrow streets become a big pedestrian mall, much like Greece, except with big awnings and a thick growth of grape vines overhead to keep it shady and cool in the street.
We made our way past the vendors over to the castle and bought our tickets. The castle was constructed by the Knights Hospitalier in 1406 on top of an existing Byzantine/Turkish castle. It sounds like the Knights managed to sneak in and steal control of the peninsula when the Turks were distracted by other invaders in the general area. By controlling Kos, Rhodes and Bodrum, the Knights controlled a major shipping lane from Africa/Middle East. The castle held 50 knights and 150 regular soldiers. The castle was taken by the Ottomans without a fight after the Knights were defeated on Rhodes. In 1895, the castle was turned into a prison. It was bombed during World War I by the French.
Today the castle houses the Museum of Underwater Archeology, the largest underwater archeology museum in the world. Turkey’s Aegean/Mediterranean coast has a tremendous amount of shipwrecks, most still yet to be excavated. The excavations displayed in the museum range from 16th century BC to the 16th century AD.
From the base at sea level, we walked through a gate and up a long, narrow ramp that led to a big entry. You could totally imagine a huge gate dropping down on both sides of the entry and trapping you in.
The entry had informational signs posted and benches, and it was nice to sit in the shade and read the signs. The entry opened into a courtyard. Around the courtyard is a church and some other buildings that ran along the perimeter. Inside the courtyard were a few vendors selling locally produced art and a display on amorphas. Amorphas are the clay containers that liquids (i.e. wine and olive oil) were transported in during the old times. They have found a lot of these amorphas from many cultures and periods of time. It was actually interesting learning about the pottery characteristic to each time and culture. Like the fort in Kos and the hospital in Rhodes, there were works of art scattered around the courtyard, such as statues, headstones, sarcophagi, marble theater masks, and more.
We entered into the church, which, like many of the rooms in the castle have been converted to museum exhibits. The church itself has been gutted and inside there is little to remind you of what it once was. It has a large model of a typical ship, complete with cargo holds full of amorphas, and some information on the history of the area.
The next building over holds a display of glass, mostly unblown, in all kinds of pretty colors. There is a model of the excavation process in a large fish tank. At the top of the tank is an anchored boat, the bottom of the tank in the sand a sunken ship, and lots of lines and little people between the two lifting objects from the bottom and taking them up. It is pretty effective in demonstrating the process.
We followed the path upwards, past numerous display rooms in different buildings that were all closed. Weird. Each level has a viewpoint and the view is stunning.
Whenever we think of medieval castles, we always think of secret passageways and hidden rooms. In Rhodes, the buildings were all logically laid out and there was no sense of secret hallways lurking about. As we wandered up and down the various paths leading through the castle compound, it kind of reminded us of Pirgos in Santorini, where the buildings are kind of a weird maze and the roof of one building is the ground floor of another building altogether. You can envision that this compound has a labyrinth of secrets. It feels very medieval castlesque.
One of the towers, the English tower (meaning the construction was paid for by England), erected in 1413, was open. We were surprised to see that the room was intact as it would have been back then, with coats of arms on the walls, armor and swords on display, model ships, stained glass windows, inscriptions carved into the stone. The ceilings are very high and it is a really neat room.
We continued exploring all the nooks and crannies of the compound. We passed a few more towers, one with a small archeological display, one that was empty but has a great view, a couple that were closed. We passed an amphitheater and an ancient public restroom. Another courtyard featured an ancient anchor display. We saw a peacock walking around.
We were getting ready to leave when we saw an exhibit room that had been closed was now open. Suddenly we realized that the exhibits must have been closed for lunch. Ahhh. We went in. There was a documentary about one expedition where they found a large number of copper ingots and Egyptian artifacts. In the next room over, they had a display of what the treasures had looked like, scattered about in the sand, to the SCUBA divers who were diving on the site.
Only a few more exhibits were now open, most of them with displays similar to ones we had already seen. We decided not to wait around for all the exhibits to open and headed out. All in all, we have to say that it is a great place to visit. The castle is in excellent condition and most impressive. The archeology displays are interesting.
It was really hot. We had walked up and down the castle compound several times, and we were worn out. We didn’t want to walk around town anymore, so we caught a bus back to Turgutreis.