The Aegean's white-washed jewel — gulet harbours, crusader castle, and Turkey's best mezes
Bodrum is a sun-drenched peninsula on the Aegean coast of Turkey, famous for its brilliant whitewashed architecture, turquoise bays, and the Castle of St Peter (now the Museum of Underwater Archaeology). The town has long drawn bohemian Turkish intellectuals, artists, and writers — Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı (Halikarnas Balıkçısı) essentially invented Bodrum's literary identity in the 1920s. Today, Bodrum is the departure point for gulet (traditional wooden schooner) cruises along the turquoise coast, and its fish market and shorefront meyhane (taverns) serve some of Turkey's finest Aegean seafoo…
Bodrum was the ancient Halicarnassus, birthplace of Herodotus (the 'Father of History,' c.484 BCE) and site of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus — one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, built by Queen Artemisia II for her husband/brother Mausolus around 350 BCE (from which the English word 'mausoleum' derives). The Crusader Castle of St Peter was built by the Knights Hospitaller from 1402–1522 using stones taken from the ruins of the Mausoleum itself. Suleiman the Magnificent expelled the Knights in 1522 and Bodrum remained a small fishing village until the 20th century.