Historical Information

The first settlement in this area was around 1100 BC by the Dorian’s.

5th century BC: Herodotus, the "Father of History", who lived and was born in Halicarnassus, wrote that the Dorian’s came from Troezen on the east coast of the Peloponnesus.

7th century BC: Halicarnassus is mentioned the first time in history.

In 546 BC the Persians overran the Greek cities of the coast, and Halicarnassus fell with the rest. A series of dynasties then ruled in the Persians' interest, the most famous of these, that of Artemisia I began in 480 BC.

Persia divided the region into 'satraps' and by 377 BC King Mausolus ruled as Satrap or Governor of Caria and Halicarnassus.

Alexander the Great began plundering Anatolia with remarkable speed and by the time he reached Halicarnassus in 334 BC the Queen Orontabatis, Satrap of Caria, was ready for him.

Halicarnassus never regained its stature after Alexander's conquest. The history becomes less detailed for a while, but we know that in the Third Century BC it came under control of Ptolemy II of Egypt, who had warships built there. When Rome conquered it in 190 BC Halicarnassus became a free city. This independence lasted until 129 BC when Rome included Caria in its reorganization of Asia.

Towards the end of the 13th Century the region known as Caria became the Province of Menteshe and was annexed to the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Beyazit in 1392.

In 1523 the 'greatest of all the Sultans', Suleiman the Magnificent, expelled the Knights. The Ottoman Empire flourished during Salesman’s 40 year reign but a long period of internal crisis and decline followed.

Bodrum itself suffered a shelling by the Russian Navy in 1770 and it was used as a Turkish Naval Base during the Greek revolt of 1824.