The Carian language

What a surprise, there was a Carian language! 

So far, I have encountered inscriptions in the Lycian language and in Pamphylian, and even a rare bit in the language of Side but until now, Carian has eluded me. 

A chance revelation came from the Turkish site of Zero Books advertising for this new book “Kaunos Kbid 1966-2021” by Baki Öğün, Cengiz Işık (ISBN-ISSN: 9786256212046).

The front cover displays a very sharp image of a bilingual text from the 4^th century BC, written in Carian and Ancient Greek. A parallel can be made with Lycian which used the Greek alphabet but added extra letters for the sounds that do not exist in Greek. Carian applied the same rule. Useless to say that this bilingual document contributed widely to deciphering the Carian language. 

It is noteworthy that the Carian inscription does not use the Greek city’s name Kaunos or Caunos but Kbid as known by the Carian people. 

The Introduction of the book on Zero Books reads as follows: 

While the numerous inscriptions unearthed at archaeological sites throughout the Eastern Mediterranean help to understand many aspects of the ancient world and its peoples, bilingual ones (Bilingue) are very special and valuable to linguists in deciphering ancient languages and understanding their structures.
The Kaunos Bilingue, written in Carian and Ancient Greek in the 4th century BCE, made a great contribution to the understanding of the Carian language. Although the Carian alphabet superficially resembles the Ancient Greek alphabet, it differs in that some similar-looking letters take on different sounds in the language and there are a few letters specific to Carian. Moreover, the most striking part of this Bilingue, long before the use of Greek name Kaunos, is the use of the original name of the city, KBID, given to their city by the Carians, the indigenous people of Anatolia. 

More information about the unique city of Caunos can be found in my earlier blog post, The surprise of Caunos.

The ancient city of Phaselis is sinking

It is a well-known phenomenon that the southern coast of Turkey is sinking and this can easily be seen off the coast of Andriake where tourists take tours in boats with a glass bottom to visit the remains of the sunken city of nearby Kekova. This is due to the fact the African platonic plate is pushing against and sliding over the Asian plate.

In antiquity, Phaselis was a privileged anchoring place since sailors could profit from the sheltered Southern Harbor which is generally used by today’s tourists, or the Northern Harbor which was and is accessible under all weather conditions, either by southwesterly and northeasterly winds. The Naval Harbor, in turn, was located deep inside the Northern Harbor and clearly extremely well protected. The harbor slowly silted up (see also: Phaselis and its three harbors).

Thanks to recent studies, geologists now have determined that ancient Phaselis has sunken almost two meters under today's sea level over the past 2,000 years. This is best seen at the entrance of the Northern Harbor where two islets near the entrance are all that remains of the pier that once connected the lighthouse at its far end to the mainland.

Turkey's southern coastline is slowly submerging with averages between three and nine centimeters each year. Once you know what to look for, you can easily find many examples of sunken houses and sarcophagi all along the Mediterranean from Caunos to Patara, to Simena and Side, including Phaselis.

The movement of the tectonic plates generates earthquakes which have hit the areas of Lycia and Pamphylia since antiquity. Especially catastrophic was the earthquake of 141 AD (well-documented because Opramoas of Rhodiapolis donated large sums for the reconstruction of more than thirty Lycian cities between Telmessus in the west and Phaselis in the east) and the one that occurred on the 5^th of August 240 AD when the same cities were destroyed once again.

This means that Phaselis is only one such example, but the phenomenon is worth noticing when walking among the beautiful remains of these once so proud and prosperous cities!

A two-month project to excavate the city of Soli (near Mersin, Turkey)

The news was announced in mid-July 2015. For years, all one could see here were two rows of columns running on each side of what seemed to be the main street of the Roman city. Tourists had no access to the site and I hope this will change after the said excavations have been carried out.

This year’s team will work on the restoration of the columns, most of which still have their Corinthian capitals, and investigate the continuation of the street as well as the Roman shops established alongside. Last year, they unearthed a very active harbor, including part of the wall dating from the period between the first century BC and the first century AD.

Soli has my interest because it is one of those Cilician cities where Alexander installed a garrison in 333 BC after having demanded a fine of 200 talents of silver for supporting the Persians against him. This fine is a considerable sum if one considers, for instance, that the yearly income of Athens in 431 BC was estimated at 1,000 talents. From Soli, Alexander marched against the Cilicians holding the hills behind the city. Some were driven off, others surrendered, and within a week, he was back in Soli – a short incursion, it seems.

It is here that Alexander received the long-awaited news that Halicarnassus had finally fallen! Ptolemy and Asander had stayed behind in 334 BC to besiege the city and to evict the Persian commander Orontobates. With the fall of Halicarnassus, the towns of Myndos, Caunos, Thera, and Callipolis came into Macedonian hands, together with Cos and Triopium (Cape Crio in southwestern Turkey). This victory called for a celebration, and Alexander is said to have offered sacrifices to Asclepius – no doubt to thank the god for his recovery from the fever he caught in Tarsus. He also held a ceremonial parade of his troops, followed by a torch race and games with music and poetic contests as well as athletics.

Whatever the situation, Soli was allowed to retain its own popular government. After the Battle of Issus in November 333 BC, Arrian tells us that Alexander cancelled the debt of fifty talents, Soli still owed and returned their hostages. This kindness was reciprocated to Alexander when he was laying siege on Tyre a year later, and three ships from Soli joined the reinforcement fleet of eighty Phoenician vessels and several others.

I doubt there will be much, if anything, left to testify from Alexander’s day since reference is generally made to the Roman and Byzantine occupation, with a faint hint towards the Seleucids who were Alexander’s successors in Cilicia.

The first to colonize the area were the Greeks from Rhodes in about 700 BC, and they named the city Soli, which eventually flourished, especially when the Persians ruled Asia Minor. After Alexander, Soli gradually lost its importance with the decline of the Seleucids in the first and second centuries BC, but gained again in prosperity with the arrival of the Roman general Pompey. He took advantage of Soli’s naval base while campaigning against the pirates who pillaged the cities of the eastern Mediterranean. From those days onward, the city was renamed Pompeiopolis in honor of their leader and liberator. New defensive walls and several public buildings and roads were built, and after Hadrian’s visit and sponsorship in 130 AD, the harbor was expanded. Pompeiopolis/Soli successfully withstood the Persian attack of 260 AD and the city’s importance kept on growing, even through the Byzantine period when it became a bishopric. However, the powerful earthquake that hit the region in 525 AD completely devastated the city, which was abandoned.

[Pictures from The Hurriyet Daily News]

Caunos and its newly discovered lady

All of Turkey is one big excavation site when it comes to archaeological sites. The latest news reaches us from Caunos (see: The Surprise of Caunos) where an elegant statue of a young women has been unearthed. It was found in a lime pit where marble objects were left as gifts to the god of Caunos, Basileus Caunios. It has been dated to the Hellenistic period, some 2,300 years ago. After being cleaned and restored, it will be on display in the Museum of Fethiye.

[Picture from Hurriyet Daily News]

Who knows what other treasures are still hidden in that marvelous city which most people only know from the tourists pictures of the rock-tombs high up on the wall along the Dalyan River.

A new season of excavations at Patara

It’s always exciting to imagine what new discoveries may be made during a new excavation season, especially on a site like Patara.

Last year a most exquisite bronze statue of Hermes dating from the Roman era was unearthed, actually dating from the period of Emperor Constantine. It is considered a quite unique find as never anything similar has been discovered. The statue, which looks quite modern and stylish, is now on display at the Antalya Archaeological Museum.

[picture from The Hurriyet Daily News]

Before that, in 2007, the entire theater had been cleared of sand dunes that covered most of the building, and in 1993, a precious Roman milestone had been unearthed. This monumental pillar, the Stadismus Provinciae Lyciae or Stadiasmus Patarensis, carried a dedication to Emperor Claudius in Greek and a list of roads built by the local governor, Quintus Veranius, in fact, the entire network that connected Caunos-Dalyan in Lycia to Attaleia (Antalya) in Pamphylia. The list includes the distances from one station to the next, 67 routes in all – enough to entice today’s travelers to explore the beautiful backcountry of Lycia.

This year, the team of archaeologists, scientists, and workers will be scrutinizing and digging at the Basilica, the Lima Hamam, the Palaestra, the city’s Acropolis, and the Ancient Lycian waterway.

As mentioned earlier (see: Wonderful Patara!), Patara surrendered to Alexander the Great in 333 BC. After his death, the city was occupied, in turn, by Antigonus Monophthalmus and Demetrios-Poliorcetes, finally falling into the hands of the Ptolemies. It was Ptolemy Philadelphus who, according to Strabo, embellished and enlarged Patara and renamed it Arsinoe after his wife and sister. But this change of name was not a success and Patara is the name that stuck.

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 shortcut 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 it 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 was probably 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.

Halicarnassus, capital of Caria

As part of the Persian Achaemenid’s Empire from 545 BC onward, Caria was governed by a succession of uneventful satraps (governors). The first satrap to make Caria more independent was Hyssaldomus of Mylasa – the capital city at that time. He was succeeded by his son, Hecatomnos, followed in turn by his son, Mausolos in 377 BC. Mausolos was a man with ambition and quite a visionary. He really established Caria’s independence, rebuilt the cities of Myndos and Syangela, fortified the city walls of Latmos and Caunos, and as if it were the most evident step, moved everyone else to Halicarnassus, which he proclaimed his new capital to replace Mylasa because its location was more favorable. Mausolos married his sister Artemisia, as was customary, and when he died childless in 353 BC, she was the one to finish the construction of the grand Mausoleum. She continued ruling until she too died from grief, it is said, after which the power went to her younger brother, Idreus. Idreus had married his younger sister Ada, who ruled after her brother’s/husband’s death. But there was still another younger brother, Pixodarus, who hungered for the title of satrap. He expelled the widowed Ada from Halicarnassus and she sought and found refuge in her stronghold of Alinda, further inland. Pixodarus aimed to befriend the Persians and ruled unofficially for a short while next to the Persian satrap Orontobates, who took over after Pixodarus’ death. This is the situation in Caria when Alexander the Great arrives at Halicarnassus in 334 BC.

The city of Halicarnassus was built as a natural theater around its well protected harbor and was, on the land side, defended by a seven kilometres-long wall dating from 365 BC, the reign of King Mausolos. This wall ran along the surrounding hillcrests, meaning that the approaching enemy could be watched and attacked from higher grounds, giving the city an unmistakable advantage. Only a few parts of that city wall are still visible today as most of Halicarnassus is hidden under the modern houses and streets of Bodrum.

Arrian tells us that when Alexander arrived from Mylasa in the east, he set up camp about half a mile from this well-fortified city. The very next day, he faced the first attack without difficulty. A few days later, hoping to find an easier approach, Alexander moved to the other side of Halicarnassus near the road to Myndos (modern Gümüşlük). Luckily for us, this Myndos city gate has been preserved and partially restored, giving us an insight into what Alexander was up against. The imposing towers of andesitic blocks open up into a well-defended courtyard from where another gate led into the city. Next to the Myndos Gate, a short stretch of city wall is still visible surrounded by the remains of the moat which, according to Arrian, ran 45 feet wide and 23 feet deep. These measurements seem to fit with what I see here, including the restored trench that runs over a length of some fifty meters. The feel of it alone is a unique experience and it is very rewarding to stand between the towering walls of the gate itself, where I easily picture Alexander shouting orders amidst the battle-cries of the Macedonians.

The Persians had amassed a substantial force of troops and mercenaries at Halicarnassus, under the leadership of the Rhodian general Memnon whom the Persian King Darius had by now appointed to control all of Asia Minor and to command the Persian fleet anchored in the harbor below. We’ll remember how Memnon, although under the command of the Persian satrap Arsites,  had lost the previous confrontation with Alexander at the Granicus a year earlier, and we can be sure that he was not willing to face another defeat.

Here on the Myndos (western) side of the city, Alexander started to fill the moat without much difficulty and brought his siege engines in position. The Halicarnassians didn’t waste any time either and as soon as darkness fell they set fire to the siege towers, but the Macedonians on guard acted promptly and extinguished the fire.

Meanwhile, it was on the Mylasa (eastern) side that another situation developed, involving two Macedonian infantrymen who one evening were bragging about their bravery. Under the influence of wine, their boasting reached such extremes that they decided to grab their weapons and set out to conquer Halicarnassus single-handed. The guards on the city walls reacted, the two soldiers got support from their mates and friends, the defenders got their own reinforcements, and in no time the brawl turned into a full-blooded battle. Halicarnassus was nearly taken and would have been if the attack had been organized and planned in full force. I’m not sure how Alexander took this incident, I don’t think all too kindly. The next morning, Alexander brought in his siege engines, which were again promptly torched by the town’s people. Yet as soon as the King appeared in person, the brave attackers hurriedly withdrew.

All in all, however, the defenders of Halicarnassus had the advantage of a commanding view over their enemy from the height of the city walls. Alexander personally led a new attack, his catapults hurling heavy stones towards the walls and soon a breach was made. The defenders counterattacked on two fronts, one group pouring out of the gap in the wall and another near the Tripylum Gate (north side). Disaster struck at this gate when the Macedonians had to retreat in force over a bridge across the moat. The narrow bridge collapsed and the soldiers were either trampled or shot by their comrades in the commotion. One such bridge has been reinstalled over the moat at the Myndus Gate, a shivering thought when you know this story. Worst of all was the slaughter which occurred near the city gates where the over-anxious Persians and mercenary soldiers, in order to keep the Macedonians out, were shutting their own men out. Lots of them were stranded before closed doors and turned out to be easy prey for the Macedonians who simply cut them down there and then. Once again, Alexander nearly took the city. This is what Arrian tells us.

If however, we follow Diodorus, we read a rather different story. He tells us that Memnon collected two thousand picked men equipped with lighted torches. At daybreak he threw the city gates wide open, and while one group of his soldiers set fire to the Macedonian siege engines he led the other to attack Alexander’s men who were moving forward to extinguish the fire. At this stage, Alexander himself sounded the attack. Under dense showers of missiles, the Macedonians killed the fires, sustaining heavy losses. That was however too much for the Macedonian veterans who were witnessing these events from a distance as they themselves were exempted from duty. After all, they had served under King Philip, Alexander’s father, and were far more experienced. Besides, they felt that the honor of Macedonia was at stake as well. They joined the fight and with great effort, the Macedonians pushed the enemy back within the city walls and Alexander sounded the recall.

At this point, according to Arrian again, Orontobates and Memnon set up a meeting to discuss further action since part of the city wall was gone and other parts were seriously damaged. It was clear they couldn’t hold out much longer. Besides, they had suffered heavy losses. They still had the harbor with the fleet in their hands, but the ships were of no use in the present situation. It was decided to set the city’s magazine on fire as well as the houses close to the walls, but strong winds spread the flames all over the city. When reports of these fires reached Alexander, he immediately took action and ordered his Macedonians to kill every man they saw setting buildings afire. The inhabitants, however, should be spared and rescued. Meanwhile, the surviving enemy army withdrew to the Arconese, an island stronghold in the harbor of Halicarnassus (where today’s fort is located, probably on top of the Carian Royal Palace - now attached to the land), and on the high grounds of the Acropolis.

Diodorus simply mentions that Memnon decided to abandon the city, moving his best men to the acropolis with sufficient provisions, and sending the rest of the army to the nearby island of Cos. When Alexander discovered this move the next morning, he razed the city (although we may wonder how much of the city was actually razed) and surrounded the citadel with a formidable wall and trench. Arrian, on the other hand, simply tells us that Alexander decided not to besiege the Persians in their strongholds which were difficult to take. Besides, such a siege would not bring him much advantage as the city of Halicarnassus was already his.

Alexander generously handed Caria over to Queen Ada who ruled over her country once again. She probably died in 323 BC, the same year as Alexander the Great. As to Memnon, he organized fierce opposition in the Aegean which could have been a serious threat to Alexander’s back had he not died of illness on Lesbos in 333 BC.

Since I first was here with Peter Sommer on his tour "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great" I was mesmerized by the locations that spoke to me as if the battle had happened just yesterday. Since then, I have returned several times, and each time I am rewarded with new vivid memories of what happened here 2,500 years ago.

Click on the Label Caria 2012 to read the full story

[Click here to see all the pictures of Halicarnassus]

An introduction to Caria, Turkey

It is quite amazing to realize how little we know about the ancient regions of Turkey. In Greece, we are quite familiar with Attica and Macedonia, for instance, but in Turkey, that knowledge is still very remote. Ask any of the millions of tourists who flock to Antalya each year and close to none will be able to tell you that they actually are in ancient Pamphylia.

Well, I have been among those ignorant travelers for years, I must admit, as it is only since I intensively followed the trail of Alexander the Great after crossing the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) that I became aware of the distinctive areas. They slowly fell into place: the Phrygians with their typical hats, the Lydians with King Croesus, and mostly Ionia with cities like Ephesus, Priene, and Miletus. So my puddle of awareness slowly grew as I marched alongside Alexander the Great to the East.

This time, I find myself in ancient Caria, where Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) once shone with its famous Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. However, unlike the situation in our modern times, clear borderlines generally did not exist, and the limits of these more or less independent regions were rather vague. At times, a river or a mountain range may have defined the limit, but otherwise, many border towns were often alternatively ruled by the strongest ruler on either side.

In any case, although I had visited several inland cities in southwestern Turkey that belonged to Caria, I still had no clear image. Caria remained an abstract region. Strange, to say the least.

It is generally accepted that Caria covered the area from the Meander River in the North to today’s Lake Köyceğiz above Caunos in the South. The Carians, curiously enough, do not fit in with their neighbors in any way, neither culturally nor linguistically. There are many theories about their origin, but as they say themselves, they have always lived on the mainland and have always been called Carians. Homer in his Iliad mentions that they were “barbarous of speech” and it seems that even today’s Turkish in that region is labeled as being “harsh”. They were excellent seafarers, though serving in many foreign armies, and were, for instance, highly prized (and probably well paid) by the Egyptians. It is said that it was the Carians who taught the Greeks to put crests on their helmets and showed them how to affix handles on their shields, which, till then, were simply slung over the soldier’s shoulder.

Caria’s greatest ruler certainly was Mausolus, who lent his name to the word “mausoleum” after the tomb he built for himself. This is definitely a “must-see” for every visitor, yet what is left is a very disappointing sight, I would say. The ancient Mausoleum stood in the very heart of the city, but today’s site looks more like a bomb crater amidst the low houses. I thoroughly admire the efforts of historians and archaeologists to bring these unique remains back to life, but it is asking a great deal of our imagination to picture this once so grandiose building on this spot. What is left here are only crumbs. For twenty centuries, the Mausoleum withstood many wars and natural disasters, but the repeated earthquakes turned out to be fatal, and when the Knights of Rhodes arrived here in 1402, they found ready building material for the construction of their fortified castle, the very one that we call St John’s Fort in the middle of the harbor. The story goes that the Knights still found an untouched coffin in the base of the Mausoleum, but postponed opening it till the next day. Yet the next day, the tomb had been plundered. It is said that both Mausolus and his wife Artemisia were cremated, meaning that there could only have been an urn with their cremated remains, but that is something we will never know for sure. The Knights were kind enough to save some of the friezes that were lying around and used them to decorate the walls of said castle. This is where the British archaeologist, Charles Newton, found them in the mid-19th century to recover them and ship them to the British Museum, together with part of a wheel (two meters in diameter) from the quadriga on top of the Mausoleum and the statues of King Mausolus and Queen Artemisia. In a later shipment, he loaded the blocks of marble and green stones that were to be transhipped in Malta. This load, however, never left the Maltese docks because the stones were considered of less importance and amazingly enough, they were used in the construction of the city’s new docks in the 19th century (see Remains of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Malta?).

Despite all the efforts made in recent decades, we are still not entirely sure what the Mausoleum really looked like. Although we have detailed descriptions from witnesses like Pliny and Vitruvius, they don’t give a good overall view, yet plenty of facts and figures to go by. The fact is that the most talented artists of that time were called upon. Skopas, Leochares (the same architect who built the famous Philippeon in Olympia for Alexander’s father!), Bryaxis, and Timotheus were appointed to decorate one side of the Mausoleum each, assisted of course by hundreds of craftsmen of all kinds. The Mausoleum is said to have been 148 feet high, resting on a square base with a stairway leading to the first platform. The outer wall of that platform was decorated with statues of gods and goddesses, while on each corner, a warrior on horseback was guarding the tomb. On top of this platform stood an imposing square mass which was girded with a band of reliefs representing the battle of centaurs and Amazons with Greek soldiers. This section was then crowned by 36 columns, alternated with more statues, behind which a massive block supported the pyramidal roof, where the quadriga with Mausolus and Artemisia was placed. During my last visit, it suddenly dawned on me that this Mausoleum has, in fact, close ties with the Pyramids in Egypt, as in both cases the actual tomb is hidden deep inside a massive stone construction.

Except for a few dozen lost blocks and column drums, nothing significant is left on the spot to see, with one single frieze that found shelter in the small museum next to the very ruins. For those who are really interested, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at St John’s Castle itself to locate the recuperated stones and column drums from the ancient Mausoleum in its walls. Finally, I would highly recommend a visit to the British Museum in London, to admire the magnificent statues of Mausolus and Artemisia, the horse head with its iron bit still in place, the lions that once watched over the lower staircase, and, of course, the many friezes created by the four great artists, were it only to make the (mental) picture complete.

Click on the Label Caria 2012 to read the full story