The sea around Datça is just as the poet Can Yücel has described: 'Greener than seaweed when you remain still / Blue when you swim.' Datça lies on the Resadiye Peninsular, which in geographical terms marks the confluence of the Aegean and Mediterranean. But it is better described as a heaven on earth, a place where the sea shimmers in ripples of seaweed green and turquoise blue, and fish dart in a glitter of silver. Local people say that Aphrodite swam in these waters, and who can deny they may be right. Where else would she have chosen? At the western tip of the peninsular is the ancient city of Knidos, where traces of almost all the periods of western Anatolian history are to be seen. The city was first founded in the 8th century BC on the site known as Old Knidos by the Dorians, who migrated eastwards via Rhodes and Syme, arriving at Datça in the 12th century BC. The names of the founders were said to be Triopias of Sparta and Hippotas. Six large Dorian colonies where the cult of Apollo was practised formed an alliance known as the Hexapolis, but later Halicarnassus withdrew,

leaving the cities of Knidos, Cos, Lindos, Kamiros and Lalysos. Excavations are still continuing at Old Knidos, situated at Burgaz, near the present town of Datça. When they built their new city of Knidos on Tekir Point, the inhabitants of the old city set out to achieve perfection in every detail. The new site was chosen as ideal for a port which would enable them to increase their share of sea trade in the region. First of all the infrastructure was completed between 365 and 355 BC, temples being built and statues purchased for them. The island at the tip of the peninsular was joined to the headland by a bridge, so creating two harbours to south and north, the larger harbour to the south being used by trading ships and the smaller one to the north by warships. The channel that once connected them is today silted up. There are two theatres at Knidos, both on the mainland. That overlooking the south harbour dates from the Roman period, while higher up is the earlier Dorian theatre. Since the city possessed no sources of fresh water,

The statue became so famous that merchants and sailors from the four corners of the world called into port at Knidos merely to see it. In the early years Knidos was ruled by tyrants, then from the 6th century onwards by an oligarchy, and from 330 BC by a democracy. Aristotle told his pupils 'True democracy is in Knidos.' The Asklepieion here was renowned as a therapeutic centre throughout the region, and famous sons of Knidos included Sostratos, architect of the Lighthouse at Alexandria, and the mathematician, geographer and astronomer Eudoxos, who at the age of 22 met Plato. During the 7th century BC the population of the peninsular rose to between 70,000 and 80,000, as trade flourished and the fertile land produced abundant crops, particularly grapes. The population consisted of merchants, sailors, potters, farmers and slaves. The potters produced amphoras for packing the commodities of trade and souvenirs for the many visitors to this famous city. The people avoided war so successfully that the city was neither razed nor burnt for nearly 1400 years.

Before his death he wrote, 'Bury me in Datça, my lamb. Pass Ankara and Istanbul by.'


* Utku Tonguç Topal is a photographer and freelance writer.