At 1,100 km (680 mi), Muğla's coastline is the longest among theProvinces of Turkey and is home to theDatça Peninsula. As well as the sea, Muğla has two large lakes,Lake Bafa in the district ofMilas and LakeKöyceğiz. The landscape consists of pot-shaped small plains surrounded by mountains, formed by depressions in theNeogene. These include the plain of the city ofMuğla itself,Yeşilyurt,Ula,Gülağzı,Yerkesik,Akkaya,Çamköy [tr] andYenice. Until the recent building of highways, transport from these plains to either the coast or inland was quite arduous, and thus each locality remained an isolated culture of its own. Contact with the outside world was through one of the three difficult passes: northwest toMilas, north to theMenderes plain throughGökbel, or northeast toTavas.[citation needed]
There are many privately runbus connections toİzmir,Antalya,Ankara,Istanbul and other major cities in Turkey both from Muğla and directly from the coastal resorts.
In ancientAnatolia, the region between theMenderes andDalaman rivers in the south was calledCaria. Caria was inhabited by the eponymousCarians and theLeleges. In theIliad,Homer described the Carians as natives ofAnatolia, defending their country against the Greeks in joint campaigns in collaboration with theTrojans.[citation needed]
A major city of ancientCaria, Muğla is known to have been occupied by raiding parties ofEgyptians,Assyrians andScythians, until eventually the area was settled byAncient Greek colonists. The Greeks inhabited this coast for a long time and built prominent cities, such asKnidos (at the end of the Datça Peninsula) andBodrum (Halicarnassos), as well as many smaller towns along the coast of the Bodrum Peninsula and surrounding islands. In the district ofFethiye, ruins remain of the cities ofTelmessos,Xanthos,Patara andTlos. Eventually the coast was conquered by thePersians who were in turn removed byAlexander the Great, bringing an end to thesatrapy of Caria.[citation needed]
In 1261, Menteshe Bey, founder of theBeylik (principality) that carried his name, with its capital inMilas and nearbyBeçin, established his rule over the region of Muğla as well. The beys ofMenteshe held the city until 1390 and were the first Turkish state in the region.
In 1390, Muğla was taken over by theOttoman Empire. However, just twelve years later,Tamerlane and his forces defeated the Ottomans in theBattle of Ankara, and returned control of the region to its former rulers, the Menteshe Beys, as he did for otherAnatolian beyliks. Muğla was brought back underOttoman control by SultanMehmed II the Conqueror, in 1451. One of the most important events in the area during the Ottoman period was the well-recorded campaign ofSuleiman the Magnificent againstRhodes, which was launched fromMarmaris.[citation needed]
In 2018, archaeologists unearthed a 2,300-year-old rocksepulchre of an ancient Greek boxer calledDiagoras of Rhodes on a hill in the Turgut village, Muğla province,Marmaris. This unusual pyramid tomb was considered to belong to a holy person by the local people. Theshrine, used as apilgrimage by locals until the 1970s, also has the potential to be the only pyramid grave inTurkey. The excavation team also discovered an inscription with these words:“I will be vigilant at the very top so as to ensure that no coward can come and destroy this grave".[5][6][7][8][9][10]
In July 2021, archaeologists led by Abuzer Kızıl have announced the discovery of two 2,500-year-oldmarble statues and aninscription during excavations at the Temple of Zeus Lepsynos inEuromus. According to Abuzer Kızıl, one of the statues was naked while other was wearing armor made of leather and a short skirt. Both of the statues were depicted with a lion in their hands.[11][12][13]
The Temple of Zeus Lepsynos, built on the site of an earlierCarian temple, 2nd century AD (probably during the reign of the emperorHadrian),Euromos,Turkey.
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