Marmaris-Ciftlik-Bozukkale-Sogut-Knidos-Gumusluk-Turkbuku-Marmaris
Two week route, suitable for beginners. A good combination of short daily passages, lush scenery, picturesque coves and historical sites. Bays and harbors visited are popular with the yachting community. According to weather conditions, we drop anchor in:
Gümüşlük stands on the site of the ancient Carian city of Myndus whose seafront sections slid into the sea in some long-forgotten earthquake. Today these barely submerged remains are a magnet for snorkelers and underwater photographers. The land site is yet to be fully excavated, but traces of antiquity can be spotted in empty fields, sounding an evocative echo of a distant age. "Rabbit Island" (Tavşan Adası), situated in the middle of the bay and accessible by a partially sunken causeway, offers a magnificent panorama. Gümüşlük, a seaside village on the western shore of the Bodrum peninsula (map), is known for its fishing-village charm, its simple but good waterfront restaurants, its spectacular sunset views, and the fact that the waters just offshore in its pristine little bays are littered with the ruins of ancient Myndus. If you visit Gümüşlük, it will most likely be for one of those sunset seafood dinners—which, I wager, you will remember for years—though you may come for lunch instead (or in addition).
Because this is the official site of the archaeological area, digging or anything to change the natural appearance is not allowed. This status is to protect the ancient village of Myndus which remained under part of Gümüşlük. The original is a Lycian city, a few miles southeast of here Myndus. BC Mozolus the 4th century, the king decided to build a new town by giving Myndus, all the city people moved to new homes.
One hundred years ago, there were the ruins of a theater and stadium, but later some of the institutions used the walls for some buildings. If you walk north-east towards the bay ten minutes, Myndus, A wall sunk into the sea is seen from the edge of a cliff leap. Archaeological status of the area prevents scuba diving, but there is much to see when you snorkel.
You should avoid hitting the underwater ruins at the entrance near the east coast of the island. This island, protected from the sea on Myndus separates the two bays. It is possible to walk to island among rock where sea depth is only half meter. The sunset and landscape is fantastic from roof terrace floors of restaurants.
Rotating wind mills in the region are still running. These mills face to northwest where summer winds comes, the traditional method that grinds the wheat grown in the vicinity.
Knidos or Cnidus is an ancient settlement located in Turkey. Although Knidos was originally founded as a Spartan colony on the site of the present town of Datca in the 7th century B.C., its inhabitants relocated it at a later date to its present site at the tip of the Resadiye promontory. It was an ancient Greek city of Caria, part of the Dorian Hexapolis. It was situated on the Datça peninsula, which forms the southern side of the Sinus Ceramicus, now known as Gulf of Gökova. By the fourth century BC, Knidos was located at the site of modern Tekir, opposite Triopion Island.
It was built partly on the mainland and partly on the Island of Triopion or Cape Krio. The debate about it being an island or cape is caused by the fact that in ancient times it was connected to the mainland by a causeway and bridge. Today the connection is formed by a narrow sandy isthmus. By means of the causeway the channel between island and mainland was formed into two harbors, of which the larger, or southern, was further enclosed by two strongly built moles that are still in good part entire.
The inhabitants of ancient Knidos were excellent mariners with reputations that rivaled those of the Phoenicians in their seamanship. Threatened by a Persian invasion in 546 B.C., the Knidians sought to defend themselves by cutting a channel through the neck of the peninsula. They abandoned it, preferring to submit to Persian rule instead. Ancient Knidos was a city known for its artists, philosophers, and engineers and it grew wealthy through the wine trade. Eudoxos, one of the most famous ancient mathematicians and astronomers, Ctesias, the writer on Persian history, was from Knidos as was Sostratos, the architect who designed the lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Never ones to pick a fight, the Knidians also surrendered to Alexander without a battle and later we see them part of the Kingdom of Pergamon and then, after 129 B.C., of Rome. During Byzantine times Knidos was an insignificant settlement and it was abandoned entirely some time during the 7th century A.D. The city had two harbors: the commercial port was located on the northern side of a promontory while the military port was located on the southern. Knidos was a planned city, built on the Hippodamos grid system. There are four wide streets running parallel to one another east and west that are intersected by a steep street of steps that divides the city into two. West of the first street at the northwestern end of the city was the military port and north of it was the Knidian agora.
The extreme length of the city was little less than a mile, and the whole intramural area is still thickly strewn with architectural remains. The walls, both of the island and on the mainland, can be traced throughout their whole circuit; and in many places, especially round the acropolis, at the northeast corner of the city, they are remarkably perfect. The first Western knowledge of the site was due to the mission of the Dilettante Society in 1812, and the excavations executed by C. T. Newton in 1857-1858.
The agora, the theatre, an odeum, a temple of Dionysus, a temple of the Muses, a temple of Aphrodite and a great number of minor buildings have been identified, and the general plan of the city has been very clearly made out. The most famous statue by Praxiteles, the Aphrodite of Knidos, was made for Cnidus. It has perished, but late copies exist, of which the most faithful is in the Vatican Museums. In a temple enclosure Newton discovered a fine seated statue of Demeter, which he sent back to the British Museum, and about three miles south-east of the city he came upon the ruins of a splendid tomb, and a colossal figure of a lion carved out of one block of Pentelic marble, ten feet in length and six in height, which has been supposed to commemorate the great naval victory, the Battle of Cnidus in which Conon defeated the Lacedaemonians in 394 BC.
Knidos was a city of high antiquity and as a Hellenic city probably of Lacedaemonian colonization. Along with Halicarnassus (present day Bodrum, Turkey) and Kos, and the Rhodian cities of Lindos, Kamiros and Ialyssos it formed the Dorian Hexapolis, which held its confederate assemblies on the Triopian headland, and there celebrated games in honor of Apollo, Poseidon and the nymphs. The city was at first governed by an oligarchic senate, composed of sixty members, and presided over by a magistrate; but, though it is proved by inscriptions that the old names continued to a very late period, the constitution underwent a popular transformation. The situation of the city was favorable for commerce, and the Knidians acquired considerable wealth, and were able to colonize the island of Lipara, and founded a city on Corcyra Nigra in the Adriatic. They ultimately submitted to Cyrus, and from the battle of Eurymedon to the latter part of the Peloponnesian War they were subject to Athens. In their expansion into the region, the Romans easily obtained the allegiance of Knidians, and rewarded them for help given against Antiochus by leaving them the freedom of their city. During the Byzantine period there must still have been a considerable population: for the ruins contain a large number of buildings belonging to the Byzantine style, and Christian sepulchres are common in the neighborhood.
Rescue excavations carried out since 1996 and so far completed two-thirds of the Stoa, the 3rd century, was built by the famous architect Sostratos. 113 meters long and 16 meters wide 5x3.80 m of soft-formed small rooms. All of the rooms open up to the south. Findings from the excavations are on display in the small museum in the city.
The bay also known as “Gerbekse" by locals, is one of the shelters for blue voyage sailboats. Cape extending into the sea and a small island at the entrance protects the bay from the wind and waves. The coast of Gerbekse has couple of restaurants and few wharfs. There are ancient ruins and churches up the hill from the castle. Affected by the beauty of the temple, some new married foreign tourists ask the boat captains to marry them by crew becoming witness. As you climb into the hills of pine and olive trees, the beauty of Gerbekse become more apparent. The further sharp and steep slopes of the Gerbekse bay are still untouched. Gerbekse have season until 15 of November and is close to Meltem winds. Coasts have small gravels, and Bottom of the bay have a good anchor holding property with depth of 5-7 meters. Interesting rock structure of the small island is admirable as much as the subtle beauty of Gerbekse bay.
Türkbükü is located on the Turkish Riviera on the opposite side of the Bodrum peninsula from the town of Bodrum. Türkbükü has a well-protected harbor ringed with high hills containing a number of luxury hotels and holiday villas. It has islands at the entrance of the bay. Other cape of Gölbükü bay and these islands protects the bay from waves. The town is a favorite vacation spot and second home residency of upper-class Turks and although less well visited by Western European tourists compared to Bodrum, also increasingly popular with foreign visitors.
There are no broad sandy beaches in Türkbükü, but there is a semi-circular boardwalk dense with shops, restaurants, bars and docks for sunbathing in the day and dining in the evening. The protected harbor is a refuge for yachts and allows for swimming in swimming pool like conditions in the morning before the afternoon breeze comes in. In the high tourist season, Turkish pop-stars, models and professional athletes can be sighted at the posh bars and restaurants or strolling along the boardwalk, justifying the popular labeling of Türkbükü as the Saint-Tropez of Turkey.
It is more or less certain that the significant historical remains on the hill dominating the bay of Türkbükü on the northwest side of the Bodrum Peninsula and Aşağı Göl Köyü at the shore of it are the remains of Lelegian town Madnasa. Friedrich Cornelius who did not have knowledge of this fact thought that Madnasa, whose name took place in the lists showing the amount of talanton paid by each town as an expense contribution to the Delian Confederacy read on the inscriptions found in Attika, was the Maeander Magnesia. Moreover he mistakenly stated that it is the same town as Maddunassa which took place in Hittite documentation and which was on the route of Tudhalia the Second on his war journey to Arzawa. However it is absolutely impossible that Lelegian Madnasa on the Bodrum Peninsula was Maddunassa because Bodrum Peninsula is nowhere to be stopped at from the country of Hittites to Arzawa countries; it is by the sea at the edge of mainland. It looks like the name Madnassa had been created from the elements of the Luwi language. It means it is the town of Ma country.
We have little information about the history of Madnasa town mentioned in the works of Ancient Plinius and Byzantion Stephanos. From the Attika inscriptions mentioned above, we find out that this town paid 2 talanton (silver equivalent to 600 Atatürk gold’s) at first, then 1 talanton to the Delian Confederacy in the leadership of Athens in 5th century BC as an expense contribution. However this situation did not prevent it to be forced to "join" to Halicarnassus/Bodrum, in other words its people obliged to get transferred to Bodrum in the era of Mausolus; therefore history of Madnasa as an accommodated town ended towards the end of the first half of the 4th century BC (around 360 BC).
surrounded by large and small numerous bays, headlands and islands, Bozburun, hides heavens amongst little grassy hills. This land of the fjord is famous for its bays which laps to the Mediterranean Sea. After passing the Karaburun which is the southern tip of the peninsula, Bozukkale is the first bay between the remaining of Degirmenburnu and Kaleburun. The right to land is a wide gulf between the two capes which is surrounded by olive groves and scrub. The surrounding port is called bozukbuku (distorted bay) by the sailors. Bozukkale is one of the preferred sheltered stations against the winds by the cruise boats. Water is very clear in this beautiful bay and it has three restaurants that serve food. The Defensive walls surrounding the hills can be seen by boats, before entering to the bay. The castle walls are still standing supported by bastions. The ruin of Loryma is among surviving ancient cities. Behind the restaurants, another ruins of a castle rises on a hilltop on north of the bay behind restaurants. The city has never lost importance since ancient times because it is well protected with a strategic location. According to historians, the bay hosted navy of Athens in BC i1412. In BC 395, Bay was the rallying point for ships before the naval battle of Cnidus. Some maps called it Oplosike Buku a derived from the Greek word “Hoploteke” which means shipyard. Once the ships were being made and repaired. There are Serçe (Sparrow) and Korsan (Pirate) bays immediately next to, Bozukkale. Serce Bay looks like a deep canyon inserted into the land. It is famous for crystal blue sea and the shipwrecks of the Fatimid dynasty carrying glass to the famous the 11 century Byzantine workshops to be processed. Underwater excavations unearthed the historical value of them. Today they exhibited in the Bodrum Museum. Around 10 BC, Loryma was the center of Rhodes kingdom. There is no adequate information about the historic city. There are nine towers of the castle extending from the rectangular form of walls. The castle, tower and bastions are very well preserved and solid. The name Bozuk (which means disordered) might be given to this castle because one side is missing. The castle against the coast makes us think that it is the defense unit of Rhodes. Because Bozukkale Bay was called Oplosika Buku in some old British naval maps, it is understood that there was a shipyard in the past. Most of the yachts sailing on Aegean Sea use Bozukkale as a stop watching all the yachts in the Aegean. Athens used this harbor because of its geographical situation and shortness of Entrance to the port for Peloponnesian Wars. In 395 BC Athenian commander, Karori used this harbor for his ships before the Cnidus War. Inn 305 BC Antigonos's son Demetrios has chosen this harbor to gather and prepare his ships in this harbor also before attacking Rhodes.