Story
The story of Halicarnassus
Beneath the streets of today's Bodrum lies Halikarnassos, the city of the historian Herodotus. Tradition says it was founded by a Dorian named Troezen, yet its literature and culture were entirely Ionian. Its wide, sheltered harbour made it the capital of a small despotism whose best-known ruler, Artemisia I, joined the Persian king Xerxes in invading Greece in 480 BC.
In 377 BC Mausolos became satrap of Caria and moved his capital here from Mylasa; around 370 BC the city had walls, public buildings, a secret shipyard and a canal. When Mausolos died, his tomb became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In 1402 the Knights of Rhodes took the city and built a castle where the old Dorian acropolis stood.
Look for the remains of walls, a sports ground and a temple platform, now in the shadow of that castle.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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