Aegean Coast · Turkey
Ancient Halicarnassus. A castle built from the ruins of a Wonder of the World.
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Ancient Halicarnassus. The Crusader castle was built 1402 with stones from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus — one of the Seven Wonders, destroyed by earthquake. The castle now holds the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, which has the Uluburun wreck (a 1300 BC merchant ship found off Kaş, the oldest known shipwreck). The town wraps around two bays; the west bay (cleaner) holds the marina, the east bay (livelier) holds the nightlife.
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Orfoz for the seafood (book ahead, on a hill above the marina). Maça Kızı in Türkbükü, 20 minutes west, for the long bay lunch. The Aegean meze: levrek (sea bass), kalamar, börülce, raki. The Çiplak Köy yoğurdu (village yogurt) and the local olive oil — the souvenirs.
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Halicarnassus was the home of Herodotus (the original historian, 5th century BC) and Mausolus (the tomb-builder whose name became the noun). The Crusader Knights of Rhodes built the castle. The Ottomans took it in 1522 alongside Rhodes. The town was a fishing village until Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, exiled here in the 1920s, wrote it into Turkish consciousness.
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The town beaches are functional; Bitez and Gümüşlük just west are better. By boat: the Gökova Gulf (15nm) for English Harbour (a WWII Royal Navy repair base, abandoned, goats now); the Datça peninsula (40nm) for Knidos at the cape — anchor in the ancient south harbour; Kos (Greek, 20nm) for the day-trip with passport stamp.
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The peninsula villages — Yalıkavak, Gümüşlük, Türkbükü — are quieter and more interesting than Bodrum town. Gümüşlük's evening: the restaurants on the rocks across the shallow water (waist-deep walk in season); the half-submerged ancient harbour walls are 4th-century BC. The Bodrum-Mardin overland trip is two days east; Mardin's the southeast.
Nearby
Castle · Museum
A Crusader castle built in 1402 using stones from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The museum holds the oldest known shipwreck — the Uluburun wreck from 1300 BC.
The Uluburun wreck display: gold scarabs, Canaanite amphorae, Bronze Age cargo. Open Tue–Sun.
Anchorage · Ruins
An abandoned village at the head of a creek. Used by the Royal Navy in WWII as a repair base — the concrete slipways are still visible.
Anchor in the creek. Swim to the ruins. The goats have taken over the buildings completely.
Ancient ruins · Cape
Ancient Knidos occupied the cape at the end of the Datça Peninsula to tax every ship passing between the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The ruins of two harbours visible from the sea.
Anchor in the ancient south harbour (3–4m, sandy). The ruins include a theatre, a temple to Aphrodite, and a sundial.
Wind & seasons
The Bodrum peninsula gets the Aegean meltemi in a modified form — stronger in the outer channel, calmer once inside the Gökova Gulf. July and August are busy. June is the month to go.
