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home - destinations - europe - turkey - destination: bodrum
Bodrum is a village on the Aegean coast of Turkey, popular with tourists from all over the world.
Bodrum is the site of the ancient city of Halikarnassus, the location of the famous Mausoleum of Halikarnassus (built after 353 BCE) - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Unfortunately, the ancient monument was destroyed by earthquakes in the Middle Ages - some of the remnants can be seen in London's British Museum.
Modern Bodrum strangely seems to have two contrasting sides to it.
The east half of the town has a long thin but reasonable beach. Behind the beach lay all the bars restaurants and night clubs that are typical of Mediterranean resort towns. This means open fronted bars that do not come alive until 10pm when everybody goes out. As well as some nice beach fronted bars (e.g. cafe del mar being a reasonably chilled out and attractive bar, with attractive staff so that helps) it also has some terrible ones. Think the worst version of club 18-30s. It does have some reasonable clubs. Halikarnas being the obvious one as it is huge (4000 people). It also is mostly outdoors and hosts foam parties on regular occasions.
The other half of the town is the west side. This manly revolves around the harbour and yacht club. Here life is a little more sedate with shops catering mainly to those who have stepped of their boats. Expensive supermarkets with proper wine and olive oil as well as the obligatory Henley Hanson to be able to purchase your new jacket. There are a couple of nice restaurants if you look hard enough and some nice clothes shops.
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According to Heredot, born B.C. 484 in Halikarnassus (ancient name for Bodrum), the city was founded by the Dor's. Megerans enlarged the city B.C. 650 and changed its name to Halikarnassus, and then Persians started to rule the city from B.C. 386.
Halikarnassus had its glorious days, when it was the capital of the Karia B.C. 353. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum, was built by Artemisia for the memory of King Mausolos was built then.
After the Roman and Byzantium rule for ages, Ottomans have conqured the city in 1522, during the time of Suleyman, The Magnificent. The city was named as "Bodrum" after Turkish Repuclic was declared.
• Mausoleum
Known as one of the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World, The Mauseloum was built by Artemisia, the sister and the wife of King Mausolos, B.C. 355.
This work of art, stood on a 21 stepped pyramid which was 46 metres high and carried a horse car symbolising victory on it, had 36 marble columns in Ionian style.
The mauseloum was destroyed in an earthquake; and the ruins were used in building of the Halikarnassus Castle. Many statues and reliefs from the mauseloum were carried to The British Museum by archeologist C. Newton, in 1856 and now lies there for public viewing.
Landmarks
The castle is quite pretty and the views are spectacular.
Bodrum Castle / the Castle of St Peter - built in 1402 by the Knights Hospitaller, the Castle is easily the most prominent landmark in the city. The castle now operates as a museum, with the focus on the Museum of Underwater Archaeology. It is one of the world's best preserved monuments dating back to medieval times. The supervision of the construction of the castle was assigned to the German architect Heinrich Schlegelholt, so that the latest developments in castle design were included.
Museums and Galleries
The Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, inside Bodrum Castle established in 1961, this great museum has won numerous awards, and displays amazing finds from underwater excavations along the Turkish coast. Includes the famous Uluburun Shipwreck, one of the earliest and richest wrecks yet discovered. Not to be missed.
Further a field there are the mud baths to visit. You go down the river on a rickety of chug-chug jump in bit baths of mud and roll around (The fun bit) and then clean off and go home. It's also easy to go across to Kos or Rhodes for a day or two. When arriving there get a scooter (very dangerous but the best and easiest way to get around). There is of course loads of old architecture to visit around if you like that kind of thing.
- Hamam - Bodrum has a fine hamam, also known as a Turkish Bath, located a few blocks inland from the harbour. Facilities are separated by gender with both sexes enjoying the same hours of operation.
- Windsurfing - There are some good possibilities for windsurfing at nearby Vass. It has a bit of a hippy air to it with lots of hire stands for boards and sails. Some may find there are just tooooo many people around in high season for it to be much fun, especially when there are competitions running.
In the high season, there is direct boat service to the Greek Islands of:
For more information on Bodrum, visit the source at Wikitravel
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