Bodrum’s nice yacht harbour with a view to the Castle of St. Peter is good to start a sailingtrip on a Gület. This is a traditional designed two-masted wooden sailing boat, often used for trips called “Blue Cruise” along the coast of Aegean Sea and Mediterranian Sea. Bodrum, located at the southern Aegean Sea is the center of the same named peninsula in the Turkish province of Mugla with wonderful bays and beaches, the beautiful shining blue sea and small forests. The tourist place with white painted, not more than three store floor high houses became popular by many artists.

Excavation finds in Bodrum give witness, that there is approximately 5000 years old settlement in the region. Bodrum was the ancient city Halikarnassos with the Mausoleum of King Mausolos II., King of Karia (377-353 BC.), destroyed by an earthquake. In Halikarnassos the famous history writer Herodot was born in the 5th Century BC. as well as the rhetoric writer Dionysius in the 1th century BC. After the destruction of the city by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, Halikarnassos lost its importance.

The Castle of St. Peter was used by the Knights of St. John during late middle age. 1522 conquered the Ottoman Sultan Süleyman the island Rhodos and also the castle in Bodrum. In the 19th Century it was used as prison. Today the Castle of St. Peter is a very nice museum with exhibitions of utensils found under water, antique amphores, glassart and old ship wrecks, e.g. the ship of Uluburun from the bronze time.

© Photos and writing by Jens Helmstedt

Text and images are copyrighted and owned by the author. It is prohibited to copy, hotlink or publish photos and text without written permission for private, commercial or editorial use. ©Jens Helmstedt