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Halicarnassus
Bodrum itself is all things to all men.
A whitewashed fishing village until the
early 1970s, it is now Turkey's hippest
resort, attracting poets, artists and
singers of international fame to its
restaurants and nightclubs. It centres
on a medieval castle and ancient harbour,
and with the ruins of ancient
Halicarnassus a few feet below the
surface it sends a shiver down the spine
of history lovers. It was here, in the
4th century BC, that Mausolus ruled on
behalf of the Persians and here, on his
death, that his wife and sister
Artemisia built his tomb, and a new
word, mausoleum, passed into the
language.
The mausoleum of Halicarnassus was one
of the Seven Wonders of the World, a
temple - like structure set on a massive
base, some 87 metres high in total, with
reliefs and statuary all over it. In its
day it was the first thing a sailor
would see on approaching the city, and
it was this that attracted the most
famous of the ancient Greek sculptors,
Praxiteles, to these shores. All that
is left today are the foundations and a
few pieces of sculpture.
The co-existence of ancient history and
a pellucid sea has allowed Bodrum
another speciality: it has become a
centre for underwater archaeology.
Bodrum Castle, built by the Knights of
St John in the 15th century, shelters a
fascinating museum, partly devoted to
marine archaeology, with Mycenaean
amphorae, gold medallions, copper
ingots, the hull of a Byzantine ship and
a large quantity of fine ancient glass
all excavated from the sea floor.
Elsewhere the museum displays a model of
Queen Ada, sister of Mausolus, friend of
Alexander the Great and namesake of the
Queen Ada Hotel, decked in her own
jewellery. Her skeleton was recently
excavated and her features have been
recreated using pathology techniques
more usually associated with police
forensic work. |
