The surprise of Caunos - Caria 7

Caunos is always advertised with the rock-cut tombs high above a reed-filled Dalyan River crowded with day-trippers in all sizes and shapes of flatboats. Not the most inviting perspective as far as I’m concerned, but how can I judge the site to its right value if I haven’t seen it for myself? So, here I go!

Our gulet throws her anchor some distance from the shore, and soon one of the riverboats steams up to take us all on board. The wind was pretty strong, and as long as I was on the gulet Almira I didn’t feel what it meant, but it was an entirely different story on this flat riverboat. Each curly wave hits the boat; at times, it is like being on a rollercoaster. However, as soon as we reach the mouth of the Dalyan River, the water surface smoothes out, and we make steady progress. The river is so calm that the sky, clouds, and reeds are reflected in pure mirror effects. How well-protected and inviting Caunos must have been to the sailors of antiquity!

This coastline is a protected site for the Carreta Carretas turtles that come here yearly to lay their eggs. This turtle varies in size from one meter to one meter and a half and can reach the respectable age of seventy! But protected or not, a local fisherman is throwing in some crabs on a line, and soon enough, I see one of those beautiful turtles emerging! Quite a sensation, I must say! Our boat continues its course, and the first city walls appear on top of a knobby mountain on my left, apparently a two-mile-long stretch. We stop at a jetty to walk over a nicely paved path toward Caunos, and its walls grow bigger as we get closer. The place seems overgrown in the lush green of spring, but the overview becomes clear once at the heart of the old harbor. The harbor's sentinels are the lesser Acropolis on the left and the Eastern Acropolis with the city walls I saw from afar on the right.

I’m standing at the very heart of the port, where a lake revives the picture of the waterfront that has now silted up. Behind me, nearly over the entire length of the bay, runs a Stoa flanked at each end by a Nymphaeum and constituting the background to several rooms in front of which are the remains of several monuments erected in memory of important Caunians. To the far left of this Stoa and Agora lies a Basilica, and at the far right, a partially reconstructed Fountain House decorated with two columns at the entrance – a pleasure to the eye!

Sitting here in the peace of the afternoon, the short-cut grass floor, scanty columns, and building relics come alive. It is easy to imagine the hustle and bustle of people coming and going, ships being loaded and unloaded, merchants talking feverishly with buyers and sellers while seafarers seek the distractions common to every port - temples, taverns, and brothels are the same all over the empire. Sacrifices to the local and foreign gods are being made to thank them for their safe arrival and to pray for a safe journey onward. It is surprising to hear ancient writers like Homer and Strabo telling us that Caunos was a notoriously unhealthy city to live in, observing the people’s greenish complexion. This was due to widespread malaria, a condition unknown at the time but lasted till the 1970s when the Turkish government launched a comprehensive campaign to eradicate malaria from this marshy area. The harbor reached the city’s edge in antiquity but has now receded about three miles back. In any case, I don’t see or hear any mosquitoes – thank Zeus! What once was a busy harbor is now a lake, but it is not difficult to see how easily its entrance could be closed off with a metal chain if needed.

Caunos was generally considered a Carian city, yet Herodotus himself has doubts and concludes that it was neither Carian nor Lycian. This statement is confirmed by an inscription in the city center showing several characters not found in any other Carian text. In the 4th century BC, Caunos was under Persian control, but King Mausolos eagerly put a Greek stamp on it. Statue bases of him and his father, King Hecatomnos, have been found, and it is generally accepted that he was responsible for building the long city walls.

It is a pity that I found no trace of Alexander’s presence here, for he was in the area in 334 BC, besieging Halicarnassus and eventually putting Queen Ada back on the throne. After Alexander’s death, his successors entered a long dispute. In 313 BC, his general Antigonus Monophthalmus took hold of Caunos, but Ptolemy captured it for himself in 309 BC. Three years later, as Ptolemy was defeated in Cyprus, Caunos returned to Antigonus Monophthalmus and his son Demetrios-Poliorcetes. That did not last either, and as early as 286 BC, they had to surrender the city to Seleucos, another of Alexander’s generals who was also King of Syria and was later handed over to Lysimachos. This is one of those messy situations that occurred during the Wars of the Diadochi that lasted for some forty years! Rhodes demanded its share, but inevitably Caunos became part of the Roman province of Asia in 129 BC. Yet the inhabitants were unhappy with this rule and requested to be a free city, which was granted some time between the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD. By then, Caunos was a fully Hellenized city, and none of its inhabitants bore a Carian name.

This coincides with the first financial crisis due to the silting up of the harbor. To encourage foreign merchants to continue stopping at Caunos, the city granted full remission of taxes, except on slaves, who were highly prized, and on salt, which was known to be of the highest quality. An inscription confirms these measures and mentions the trade of resin imported from the pine forests in the hinterland used essentially in shipbuilding.

I now climb to the higher terrace from where the position of the harbor and today’s silting up are clearly visible. Here I find the strangest building in the shape of a horseshoe dating from the 1st century BC, set inside a colonnade gallery in Doric style. The inner walls of poor masonry and the column drums still show traces of plaster. The outer circle is built in white marble carrying fluted columns. At the open side of this horseshoe construction, three steps led to a semi-circular podium trimmed with a row of unfluted columns in the back. This sanctuary probably was dedicated to Zeus Soteros. Still, a strange purple stone at the foot of these steps, in the middle of the inner circle, indicates that this was a sacred area as early as the 5th century BC. At first, this stone was a riddle for the archaeologists till they started digging. They discovered that this round altar stone stood directly on top of a huge limestone monolith broken into two pieces. This monolith stands on the bedrock, some 6.5 meters below the present floor level. This was called a baetyl, a kind of pyramidal sacred stone that, when still intact, would have stood 3.5 meters tall. The pyramid is, in fact, an abstract representation of the god-king of Caunos, Basileus Caunios. This baetyl is the city's emblem as found on coins of Caunos until the middle of the Classical Period. I simply can’t get enough of this place; it’s so unique!

There is still another terrace above this one, whose entrance is framed by an imposing doorway, and where I find three main buildings. To the left are the relatively poor remains of a massive Roman Bath (more excavations needed); next to it, a recognizable Basilica with a rounded apse and three distinctive aisles; and finally, a smaller building either defined as a temple or as a library. And then there is another odd construction! The remains of a quarter-circle with two steps with carved lines running across its flooring. This may indicate that the city's architects used this stone as a reference layout. This system is known but has never been recovered simply because it was permanently destroyed after the city was completed. Another enigma that needs to be solved! Caunos is definitely full of surprises.

And then, I find myself right next to the theater entrance. Walking the stairs under the original vault is always exciting – it takes me straight back in time. The theater is Greek in shape but was adapted by the Romans later on with an elevated skene behind the orchestra. It had a seating capacity of 5,000 people, not excessively large, but as always, the spectator had a sweeping view over the harbor, the Acropolis on both framing hills, and the rest of the city.

I am so entirely taken by the unexpected surprises of Caunos with its highly intriguing buildings that I nearly forgot about the rock tombs, which everybody knows, and everybody comes to see! I must admit that their sheer location comes straight out of a fairy tale. They are more or less lined up in two rows, the bottom row being simple square holes. The upper row is the most spectacular part, where the facades of the so-called temple tombs are cut from the rock in the shape of a temple with columns and all. I don’t visit the inside, but I’m told they contain the usual three benches where the dead were placed. Pottery found inside the tombs seems to date to the 4th century BC. A spectacular view that reminds me of Petra in Jordan – although on a smaller scale.

By now, it is time to return to the gulet, and as our riverboat steams towards the open sea, I keep seeing the big knob with Caunos’ city walls till we have reached the open sea – it must have been a true beacon for any seafarer. The winds have picked up even more by now, and this flatboat is undoubtedly not the most comfortable way to ride the choppy waves. My admiration for the ancient skippers and pilots is rising once again. What a day!

Click on the Label Caria 2012 to read the whole story.
[Click here to see all the pictures of Caunos]