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Archeology... |
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| The area surrounding Datça includes the famous cities of Knidos, Bodrum, Marmaris, Mugla and Fethiye and some of the world's most impressive remains of past civilizations. | ||||||||
Closest to Datça, at the end of the Datca peninsula, stands the ancient Carian city of Knidos, "a city that was built for the most beautiful of goddesses, Aphrodite, on the most beautiful of peninsulas." The city, famous in the 4th century B.C. as a centre of art and culture, is home to the remains of a circular temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love; the arcaded entrance was built of white marble heart-shaped columns. The legendary statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles once graced this temple, and was regarded as one of the most beautiful sculptures of ancient times. |
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| A little further away, in the village of Ozluce , to the East of Mugla, you can find the second largest open-air nature museum in the world. Turolian Park houses fossils that geologists claim are between 5 and 9 million years old. | ||||||||
Bodrum, known in ancient times as Halicarnassus, was the birthplace of Heredotus (the father of history) and is the site of the Tomb of King Mausolus (4th century B.C.), one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. An impressive medieval castle built by the Knights of Rhodes guards the entrance to Bodrum's dazzling blue bay. The Castle of St. Peter is a fine example of 15th-century crusader architecture. It has now been converted into the Museum of Underwater Archaeology , displaying Bronze Age artefacts and vases from the 8th and 9th centuries B.C. An ancient amphitheatre dating from the 2nd century B.C. is housed here, as is the Sunken Boat Museum . |
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| On the outskirts of Bodrum, Labranda is an ancient site of the worship of Zeus -the God of the skies- , chosen because it is the highest point in the mountains. To the north of Bodrum, is Kiyikislacik, the birth-place of the mythological Dolphin Boy. | ||||||||
At Fethiye, the ruins of Arymaxa, an ancient city at the southern tip of the gulf, lie at the edge of the azure waters. Opposite, on Tersane Island , stand Byzantine ruins, including those of the ancient shipyards. Fethiye is also known for its elaborate rock tombs carved into the faces of the cliffs by the Lycians. These are especially remarkable; one is the tomb of King Amnytas of Macedonia , dating from the 4th-century B.C. and built in Doric architectural style. Other historic places in the city are the Sarcopaghi and the Fethiye Tower .
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In Marmaris, your first visit should be to the Ottoman castle of Suleyman the Magnificent, built in 1522 as a base for his assault on Rhodes against the knights of St. John . It now houses the ethnography museum. |
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