Hand in Hand with History: Classical Bodrum by Rose Baring

‘I have travelled the whole world but found nothing in heaven or earth as beautiful as the Aegean’ Herodotus, 5th century BC.

The Bodrum Peninsula, at the centre of Turkey’s Aegean coast, has been attracting tourists for some 2,500 years. What those early travellers came to see, the natural beauty attested to by Herodotus and the architectural splendours of the civilisation into which he was born, are still the major attractions of the area today. Some spend their days enthralled by the sea - sailing aboard one of the distinctive broad-hulled gulets, snorkeling round a rocky headland or slicing an athletic crawl through the aquamarine water. Others head inland, exploring the ruins and travelling back in time to rediscover the peace and harmony of a world which, for most of us, has all but disappeared.

Away from the coast this area of Turkey is an agricultural region, where the lifestyle of the farming community continues much as it did in ancient times. Living sometimes right amongst the ruins, their animals stabled in antique houses, these families live off the land, relying on goats, bees, chickens, sheep and small holdings for the majority of their food. Water bubbles from the very same springs that gave rise to the ancient settlements and the air seems as pure as it was when Homer breathed it. In spring wild flowers of all sorts, anemones, cyclamen, orchids and irises, carpet the ground, while the air is suffused with the sweet scent of citrus fruits.

Bodrum itself is all things to all men. A whitewashed fishing village until the early 1970s, it is now Turkey’s hippest resort, attracting poets, artists and singers of international fame to its restaurants and nightclubs. It centres on a medieval castle and ancient harbour, and with the ruins of ancient Halicarnassus a few feet below the surface it sends a shiver down the spine of history lovers. It was here, in the 4th century BC, that Mausolus ruled on behalf of the Persians and here, on his death, that his wife and sister Artemisia built his tomb, and a new word, mausoleum, passed into the language.

The mausoleum of Halicarnassus was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, a temple-like structure set on a massive base, some 87 metres high in total with reliefs and statuary all over it. In its day it was the first thing a sailor would see on approaching the city, and it was this that attracted the most famous of the ancient Greek sculptors, Praxiteles, to these shores. All that is left today are the foundations and a few pieces of sculpture.

Further afield the peninsula reveals a startling landscape of steep mountains, ridges lined with the skeletons of old windmills sited to catch the prevailing westerly wind, and turquoise coves. At Gumusluk the tables of mouth-watering fish restaurants overlook the ruins of ancient Myndos. An unusual post-prandial exercise sees diners groping gingerly through the water, following the ancient underwater causeway that joined Rabbit Island to the mainland and thus secured the sheltered harbour.

Almost everything you might choose to do in and around Bodrum has some link with the past. Visit the textile market on Tuesday, and you will see the latest products of an ancient local tradition of weaving. Buy a sponge and think of the Romans who used sponges here for everything from padding their armour to wiping their bottoms. Walk in the hills and you may stumble across the ruins of the Lelege civilization who lived here in small villages as long as 6000 years ago. Or take one of the daily boats to the Greek island of Kos, to ancient Caunus or to Datça and speed along routes that have been used for millennia.

In the hills around the inland town of Milas are two fascinating sites, both idyllic picnic spots and each revealing a very different side of the local history. Peçin Kale, dominated by a dramatic cliff-top castle, was the site of the original town of Milas. Scattered among the trees behind the castle are the ruins of a handful of buildings from the 14th-century Mentese dynasty, most important of which is the tomb of Ahmet Bey and his wife. Last of the Mentese governors of the citadel, he held out for a year in this stronghold before succumbing to an Ottoman siege. The beautifully sculpted medrese (Koranic school) in which they lie has recently been restored, as the tomb has become a place of pilgrimage.

By contrast Labraynda is a sacred Carian site, strongly identified with Mausolus and his dynasty and originally linked to Mylasa by a 13km, paved Sacred Way. The rough dirt road today snakes up through rocky, pine-strewn hills to give panoramic views of the plain of Milas. Herodotus describes the sanctuary of Zeus Labrayndus before Mausolus’ time as a sacred grove of plane trees, and it is easy in this remote rural setting to imagine sacrificing to the ancient gods in such a natural temple. Most of the pale stone buildings scattered over the monumental terraces in this hill-top eerie were built by Mausolus and his brother Idrieus, who complemented the sturdy plane trees with a forest of fluted columns in the Temple of Zeus and built monumental banqueting halls for the visiting pilgrims. Don’t forget to buy a pot of honey from the owner of the rustic roadside cafe. In spring it will taste of a subtle mix of wild flowers, while in summer and autumn the honey takes on the heady insistence of the surrounding pine trees.

Differing yet again from its neighbours, the ancient city of Iasus was built beside the magnificent natural harbour now occupied by the village of Kuren. Iasus was renowned for the quality of its fishing grounds and one of the joys of visiting the site today are the near-by restaurants which serve succulent, freshly grilled fish. Some pleasures never change! After lunch the adventurous can make their way to the far end of the site and swim off the ancient harbour fortifications.

All you need is a car, and the ancient world is your oyster. Yet some mornings the feverish glow of classical antiquity cannot compete with the simple pleasure of a late breakfast, a morning swim and time to dream.