Bodrum

Aegean, Turkey 2 tours visit here

Bodrum is a coastal resort city on Turkey's southwestern Aegean coast, built on the site of ancient Halicarnassus, the city of the historian Herodotus. Its most famous monument, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, was the tomb of the Carian ruler Mausolus and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; it was dismantled over the centuries, and only foundations and fragments remain on the site. The town's landmark is the 15th-century Bodrum Castle, the Castle of St Peter, raised by the Knights Hospitaller on a promontory between the two harbours and built partly from stone taken from the ruined Mausoleum. It now houses the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, known for shipwreck finds recovered off the Turkish coast. An ancient theatre above the town also survives. Below the castle, whitewashed flat-roofed houses run down to a marina lined with wooden gulets, the broad-beamed schooners used for coastal cruises, and the waterfront bars give Bodrum its nightlife reputation. The peninsula runs west to quieter villages such as Gumusluk, Yalikavak and Turgutreis. Castle and museum are usually seen in half a day; summer is hot and crowded, while late spring and early autumn are calmer.