Did you know...
...that once there was the 5th Worldwonder in Bodrum?
The ancient name of Bodrum is Halikarnassos.
There lived the historians Herodot and Kallimachos. Under the rule of king Mausolos II. (377 bis 353 b.C.) Halikarnassos became well-known. 20 years after the death of Mausolos Alexander the Great came with his brave Makedonian soldiers and he had the great idea to destroy this nice and beautiful town. Unfortunately Halikarnassos was a part of the Persian empire which Alexander did not love.
Mausolos had made a tomb in Halikarnassos which was the height of 49 m (145 feet). So it seems that he made it for his beloved wife Artemisia, who at the same time was his sister. Did she really love him all the more because he built such a wonderful tomb for her?
This Mausoleum of Halikarnassos is counted among the 7 Worldwonders. It was quadratic, had a big basement whereupon 36 columns were placed bearing the roof. On the roof there were statues of Mausolos and/or his wife Artemisia and 4 wonderful horses, a so-called Quadriga, of four horses and a carriage. The basement was in Carian style, the columns in Greek style and the roof in Egyptian style like the Pyramids.
This masterpiece was created by Pytheos of Priene and Satyros of Pharos, (Greek people), who won the open competitive bidding.
On each basement side there were pictures of chariot races, Herkules and fighting Amazones, for whom Mausolos obviously showed big personal interest. Mausolos loved the Greek philosophy, mythology, architecture, democracy and the "Greek way of life", the Greek model of living. Mausolos finally wasn't Turkish, he was Carian.
Though he lived in Halikarnassos today the children in Bodrum learn very little at school about him and the victories of his wife. The Turkish history according to school learning program begins in Mongolia with heroes like Mete Han and other gruel rulers which came to Turkey and celibrated great victorys over the inhabitants and became the ancestors of today folks. The history ends one more time with victories over Italyan, British, French and Greek occupiers after World War I. and foundation of a modern state with European aims by Mustafa Pascha Kemal (Atatürk).
The impressive Mausoleum outlasted 1500 years and was destroyed by some earthquakes in the 14th century AD. which also regrattebly took place in Turkey in former times.
After Alexander the crusaders of Saint John came to Bodrum and anticipated modern recycling technologies by taking the ruin pieces and build the castle Petronium which can be admired this very day in Bodrum harbour. (see pictures from Bodrum).
So you can say that knight's castle of Bodrum is a metamorphosis of Worldwonder 5th. Later in 19th century there came British archeologists and made researches about the original place of the Mausoleum and by chance found the right place. They gathered the nicest pieces like an Amazon frieze and statues and gave them their last domicile in British Museum in London. The renowned Turkish poet Cevat Shakir Kabaağaçlı once wrote a letter to the director of British Museum and expressed his doubts that the beautiful relicts would be happy by staying in rainy, foggy, misty and cold London. He promptly got the sympathetic answer that they take his troubles very seriously and immediately painted the concerned room walls in a beautiful blue. - British humour.
Here you find a link to the British Museum.
On this homepage of British Museum you can choose "Compass" and search for "Mausoleum". You will find 6 pieces with detailed descriptions.
There I found this nice relict about the fight between Hercules and the Amazones (zoom by clicking)
Here is the description:
This
is one of the most interesting sections of the Amazonomachy (war
against the Amazons) frieze, though
one of the least well-preserved. It shows the hero Herakles grasping a
kneeling Amazon - possibly Hippolyte, their queen - by her hair, while he
swings his knotted-club behind his head ready to strike her. The Amazon
tries to release herself from his grasp in a twisting movement that causes
her cloak to billow over her head.
The Amazons were a fighting nation constisting exclusively of women with only one breast. The other was burned out because it would trouble while using arrow and bow.
Though according to the saga Alexander the Great met the queen of the Amazones and became father of her son but later researches about the region of the Amazon nation failed so obviously the stories about them are as true as the storys about Hercules.
How can we imagine the Mausoleum?
Look at thees pictures:
The most beautiful picture was the one below made by Bill Munns. Unfortunately Mausolos and his wife Artemis is absent and the charriot is empty:
In Bill Munns Homepage you will find pictures of all 7 Worldwonders and on another site there is a wonderful gallery of the hanging gardens of Amytis.
Let's go back to our Mausoleum:
On the roof their stood statues on a single axis chariot with 4 horses. To be seen at an altitude of 45 m they made the size of the horses 5 m high and 6,50 m long. The horses could consist of 2 or 3 pieces so there were tons of material having to be lifted onto the top of the tomb. The archeologists also found a well-preserved statue of one horse wich you can also see on the above mentioned homepage of the British Museum.
Today in Bodrum there is a little museum upon the place where the Mausoleum stood in former times. And here you can see what the British archeologists left behind:
There is even more to tell about the history about Artemis, Mausolos, and the detection of the grave. .. Maybe I will tell it later by adding more pages to this site.
If you do not want to wait you can visit a very nice site of our friend Karlheinz Klüter, who made his pages about Bodrum bilingual, German and English. If you visit his very professional Homepage about Bodrum you will find much interesting information.
So the question remains: Where did Bodrum take its name?
The brave brothers from Saint John called their knight's castle Petronium (latin). This name comes from biblical Petrus, a disciple of Jesus who mostly was very courageous. So the name of the castle is house of Peter or castle of Peter. Later the Ottoman occupied the land and called it Petrum. In his book "On Seafaring" Admiral Piri Reis, whose famous map can be find on the backside of the 10 Million Lira bank-note called the town Bodurum. The last step befor contemporary pronunciation of Bodrum.
So Bodrum (actually the turkish word for: cellar) assumed its name from the castle Petronium and its meaning is "castle of Peter".