Turkiye
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Knidos THE
territory of Knidos covered the long fi nger of land known today as the Datça
peninsula. Most scholars now believe that the ancient city was originally
located halfway along the peninsula near Datça, and in the mid-fourth century BC
moved to its present site at the western tip of the peninsula, modern Cape Krio
or Deveboynu (‘camel’s neck’). The new site, unlike the old, has little
agricultural land, and the move must have been made to exploit its position on
the sailing routes east-west between the Levant and the Aegean and north-south
between the Dardanelles and north Africa. During the summer sailing season
(ancient Greek merchantmen rarely put to sea in winter) the prevailing wind is
the strong northern wind known today as the meltem (Italian malo tempore), and
boats would often be held up at Cape Krio waiting for it to abate. The two
harbours which the Knidians created by joining to the mainland the then island
at the tip of the peninsula encouraged such stopovers. Aphrodite Euploia (‘of
good sailing’) had long been the principal deity of the Knidians, but the
facilities needed to cater for waiting sailors at the new port doubtless
enhanced her renown. The new city was laid out on terraces on the gridiron plan
favoured by the fifth century Milesian town-planner Hippodamos and found
elsewhere at, for example, the new city of Rhodes established in 408 BC, Priene,
Ephesus, Herakleia by Latmos and Peiraieus. Private housing was placed mostly on
the island, while most of the public buildings were on the mainland. The new
city seems to have achieved immediate prosperity and continued to be important
until the sixth and seventh centuries AD, after which its signifi cance
declined, perhaps from a combination of earthquakes and the disruption of water
supply which they may have caused, Arab raids, and changing patterns of trade.
We anchor in the deeper southern (ancient commercial) harbour, and fi rst of all
cross the narrow isthmus to visit the northern harbour where in antiquity
shallow-draft triremes were drawn up. Its entrance is guarded by two large round
towers. These were not lighthouses, as some guidebooks assert, but part of the
massive fourth-century city walls which extend on the mainland up the ridge to
the acropolis and then to the sea to the east, and on the other side up to the
top of the island. An opening in the walls under a tower near the northern
harbour may have been an ancient sluice to prevent silting in the harbour, or,
perhaps more likely, a postern gate allowing small craft to slip out. An early
Christian basilica nearby has mosaics which, according to an inscription in the
narthex, were paid for by a lady named Cleopatra. In August and September the
whole area is covered by white sea-lilies, which modern Greeks call lilies of
the Panagia (Virgin Mary) and which were almost certainly sacred to Aphrodite
before her.
A newly-excavated road leads north from the trireme harbour up to a Propylaia or
ornamental gateway which marks its junction with the city’s main east-west road.
In the lower stretch of the harbour road the archaeologists recently discovered
a Hellenistic copy of the Lysikrates monument in Athens, acting as a
fountain-house; a replica is to be erected on site. The Propylaia forms the
entrance to the religious heart of ancient Knidos, with three temples built on
terraces one above the other. The lowest is a small Doric temple in pinkish
marble, above which lies a temple of Apollo Karneios, its massive altar
overlooked by tiers of seats. A short way above, in front of a suggestive gash
in the rock caused by an earthquake, is a round structure of the second century
BC which, despite some recent doubts, is probably the temple of Aphrodite.
Discovered in 1969 by American archaeologists, under the direction of (you
couldn’t make it up) Professor Iris Love, it has fine views of both harbours.
Here would have been displayed the nude statue of Aphrodite by the mid-fourth
century BC sculptor Praxiteles, perhaps the most famous work of art in the
ancient world. The round temple seems to have been less a place of cult than a
showcase for tourists who fl ocked to see the statue until well into Roman
times. The lecturer may need to be restrained from reading pseudo-Lucian’s
account of his visit to the shrine.
On our way down through the rest of the site, we pass a large cistern in fi ne
masonry; a newly-excavated probable heroon, the ruins of an opulent second
century AD marble temple in the Corinthian order; a sundial; an early Christian
basilica with some Arabic inscriptions and deliberately smashed slabs bearing
crosses (products of an Arab sea-raid in the late seventh century AD); and, at
sea-level, a fairly well-preserved theatre of Hellenistic date with Roman
additions and some inscriptions. Next to the theatre is a recently excavated
temple of Dionysos behind which is a stoa (colonnade) under the retaining wall
of the terrace above. Turkish archaeologists have recently concluded that booths
located along the retaining wall are not shops but private dining rooms probably
associated with the temple. More excitingly, they have found evidence to suggest
that the stoa is in fact the famous ‘stoa pensilis’ or ‘hanging stoa’ mentioned
by ancient authors as the work of Sostratos, the Knidian architect who built the
Pharos of Alexandria in the third century BC. Several columns and part of the
architrave have been re34 erected, and further restoration is planned. Along the
coast to the east of the theatre are the remains of a council-chamber and of a
Hellenistic house made of mud-brick, from which fragments of impressive frescoes
have been recovered.
The more energetic may wish to visit the precinct of Demeter and Persephone high
up to the north-east of the site where Charles Newton in the mid-nineteenth
century found the famous seated statue of Demeter now in the British Museum. The
shrine lies on a terrace built under a smooth cliff-face with three niches for
offerings or statues. On the way we see a building which Newton excavated and
identifi ed as a sanctuary of the Muses, but which a team from the British
Museum now working with the Turkish archaeologists have identifi ed as a
nymphaeum, or sanctuary of the nymphs. A much more demanding, and sometimes
inadvisable, walk-cum-scramble leads past an old theatre high up in the city and
on to the remains of the acropolis with its massive fortifications and spendid
views. Less demanding is a walk to the modern lighthouse at the tip of Cape Krio,
with fi ne views at sunset. This may have been the location of the sanctuary of
Apollo Triopas, Apollo who faces three ways.
A mile or so along the modern road to the east of the site is the huge ancient
necropolis, with massive tombs in the shape of houses and temples; a detachment
of jandarma protects them from illicit excavators. Not far from here was the
famous tomb whose surmounting lion was removed by Newton and is now in the Great
Court of the British Museum; the base of the tomb, on a headland, can be seen
from the boat.
All in all, this is a magnifi cent site, which, if time permits, justifies a
stay of two nights. The swimming is good.
WESTMINSTER CLASSIC TOURS