Knidos (Carian)

 ruins, archeological site, ancient civilization, draw only border

Datça (Reşadiye) Peninsula, Muğla, TÜRKİYE 36°41'8.99"N ; 27°22'31.60"E

Knidos or Cnidus, an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor and once part of the country of Caria is located on the Tekir cape at the Datça (Reşadiye) peninsula where the Aegean sea meets the Mediterranean. Knidos, one of the major harbour cities along the Anatolian shores, is situated at the extremity of the long Datça (Reşadiye) peninsula.

During the Persian rule in the region, in 360 B.C., the Cnidians left their settlement and established a new city of Knidos in the Datça (Reşadiye) peninsula, based on the plan of Hippadamos.

The city was established on terraces that slope down to the sea both on the mainland peninsula where they face southwards and on Cape Krio (also known as the Camel's Hump), formerly an island but now also a peninsula, where they face north. The two parts of the city are linked by a bridge, which also serves to divide the two harbours from each other. The smaller, military harbour lies to the west, while the larger to the east is regarded as the main commercial harbour. The city is surrounded by a circuit of walls, interspersed with round and square towers. From their appearance and style of construction it would seem best to date them to the 4th century B.C. and more specifically, to the time of King Mausolos of Halicarnassos. In the 6th century B.C. Knidos became a rich city and for this reason it built for itself a marble Treasury at Delphi.

The extreme length of the city was little less than a mile, and the whole intramural area is still thickly strewn with architectural remains. The walls, both of the island and on the mainland, can be traced throughout their whole circuit; and in many places, especially round the acropolis, at the northeast corner of the city, they are remarkably perfect and it continues for some 7km. Beyond the walls stretches an extensive necropolis.

The first Western knowledge of the site was due to the mission of the Dilettante Society in 1812, and the excavations executed by C. T. Newton in 1857-1858. Many of the ancient statues and parts of the temples were removed from the site during these excavations.

The agora, the theatre, an odeum, a temple of Dionysus, a temple of the Muses, a temple of Aphrodite and a great number of minor buildings have been identified, and the general plan of the city has been very clearly made out. The most famous statue by Praxiteles, the Aphrodite of Knidos, was made for Cnidus. It has perished, but late copies exist, of which the most faithful is in the Vatican Museums. In a temple enclosure Newton discovered a fine seated statue of Demeter, which he sent back to the British Museum, and about three miles south-east of the city he came upon the ruins of a splendid tomb, and a colossal figure of a lion carved out of one block of Pentelic marble, ten feet in length and six in height, which has been supposed to commemorate the great naval victory, the Battle of Cnidus in which Conon defeated the Lacedaemonians in 394 BC.

Knidos was a city of high antiquity and as a Hellenic city probably of Lacedaemonian colonization. Along with Halicarnassus and Kos, and the Rhodian cities of Lindos, Kamiros and Ialyssos it formed the Dorian Hexapolis, which held its confederate assemblies on the Triopian headland, and there celebrated games in honour of Apollo, Poseidon and the nymphs.

The city was at first governed by an oligarchic senate, composed of sixty members, and presided over by a magistrate; but, though it is proved by inscriptions that the old names continued to a very late period, the constitution underwent a popular transformation. The situation of the city was favourable for commerce, and the Knidians acquired considerable wealth, and were able to colonize the island of Lipara, and founded a city on Corcyra Nigra in the Adriatic. They ultimately submitted to Cyrus, and from the battle of Eurymedon to the latter part of the Peloponnesian War they were subject to Athens. Knidos enjoyed its most brilliant time in the Hellenistic period (330-31 B.C.). Stamped amphora handles from Knidos have been found in large numbers at Athens, Delos and Alexandria (in Egypt) as well as in the north Black Sea area. They bear witness to the major role the city played in the trade and export of wine and olive oil. From the 2nd century B.C. onwards Knidos also became an important centre for the production of pottery.

In 540 B.C., when the Persians were expanding their empire westwards toward the Aegean, Knidos controlled the whole of the Datça (Reşadiye) Peninsula.

In the 4th century B.C. Knidos had become a major metropolis with a cosmopolitan appearance. It was during this time that the famous sculptors Skopas and Bryxias worked on the temples at Knidos, while the city also gained the prestigious and well known statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles.

In 394 BC, off the port, Conon fought the battle which destroyed Spartan hegemony. The Romans easily obtained their allegiance, and rewarded them for help given against Antiochus by leaving them the freedom of their city.

In the Roman period Knidos as a "free city" was exempted from paying taxes to Rome. At that time the family of C Julius Theopompus was one of the most wealthy business families in the city.

In the 7th century A.D. Knidos, as in the case of other coastal cities in Anatolia, fell prey to Arab raids from the sea. Evidence for this can be found in the Arabic inscriptions carved into the floor of one of the churches. Later Knidos also suffered a number of devastating earthquakes, and the abandonment of the city may plausibly be attributed to these natural causes.

During the Byzantine period there must still have been a considerable population: for the ruins contain a large number of buildings belonging to the Byzantine style, and Christian sepulchres are common in the neighbourhood.

Eudoxus, the astronomer, Ctesias, the writer on Persian history, and Sostratus, the builder of the celebrated Pharos at Alexandria, are the most remarkable of the Knidians mentioned in history.


References :
www.archaeology-classic.com/turkey/knidos.html