Bodrum, Turkey Once Had a Secret Harbor

Bodrum Turkey is among the most beautiful yacht ports you can visit in the Aegean Sea.  While the city is mostly known for being a place for jet setters to relax on comfy pillows watching their yachts bob beside them, it’s also a place with a storied history. Flights to Bodrum depart frequently from Istanbul and are not expensive.

Roman Skaskiw wrote about visiting Bodrum and the Tomb of Mausolus, known as the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus near Bodrum. It’s one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, yet he was disappointed that few of the remaining stones bore any distinguishable carvings, and it was hard to discern what the original looked like back in the day.

One interesting story depicted on a series of sketches was how the navy of Halicarnassus hid themselves in a secret harbor. They lured their Greek attackers away from their ships by feigning surrender, then the captured the unmanned ships, towing them out to sea and slaughtered the attackers.

Today you just have to imagine where this hidden harbor is, and it’s unlikely that Greeks will be making any sorts of attacks on Turkey. They can’t afford it any more.