B O D R U M  C A S T L E

The Bodrum Castle is also home to the Museum of Underwater Archeology. No museum captures the history of when the Hittites, Phrygians, Greeks, Romans, Seljuks, Arabs and other peoples traded far and wide across the Mediterranean - as does Bodrum's Museum of Underwater Archeology. Bodrum Castle was built in the 15th century by the Knights of St. John over the remains of an earlier Byzantine and Turkish castle. The castle includes both the historical exhibits of the castle itself and it houses the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. A wonderful display of amporas, coins, glass and jewelry rooms, Classical and Hellenistic statuary and Byzantine relics. Items from the oldest ship ever found (Found by a sponge diver off the coast of Marmaris). The amphoras, lamps, carpentry tools, scales and weights discovered at the wreck site are now exhibited together with a full scale model of the ship’s hull.  State-of-the Art videos explaining the salvage techniques all make this museum one of the most unique.

The Carian princess hall (10am-noon & 2-4pm; an extra $6) displays the skeleton and sarcophagus of a fourth-century BC Carian noblewoman unearthed in 1989. The Carian Princess, appropriately designed in the form of a ceremonial room of the Carian period, is Queen Ada, who loved Alexander the Great like her own son. Queen Ada died at the age of around 40 and was buried with her jewelry. Examination of the skull by scientists at Manchester University in England has enabled a reconstruction of the queen’s face to be made, and she awaits visitors dressed in her best clothes.

For more information go to www.bodrum-museum.com Or www.kultur.gov.tr
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8am-noon & 1-5pm. Closed Monday.
Admission: about $8 USD