Knidos

The trade harbor.  The breakwater is about 2700 years old  and still there on the right side.
The other side of the breakwater has collapsed and is underwater.
We had to be really careful coming in so we did not hit the sunken part of the breakwater.

Knidos [Cnidos] was a big city with two harbors ,a military harbor trade harbor. We docked in the trade harbor which is now a fish restaurant harbor.  We docked in this harbor because the military harbor is now silted in.  It is so shallow that only small fishing boats can go there.


When we came in we had to be careful because there was a sunken breakwater on the right side.  The old stone breakwater that the Romans built is still there on the left side.  


That day we walked behind the fish restaurant and could see the old military harbor.  We tried to see the sun go down because we wanted to see a green flash.  But there was an island in the way and we could not see the sun go down to the sea.  It went behind the island.  

The lower theater.  The city was built way up
on those hills and off to each side.
And on the opposite side of the harbor too.

The fish restaurant is on what they call a land bridge that connects what would be an island to the mainland.  This land bridge was there when Knidos was a big city long ago.  There were terraces all up the side of the island side and it faced the old theater across the trade harbor.  All around inside the trade harbor are large sections of the ancient quay still in place.  But those old stone docks are crumbling and boats can't  tie off there any more.

The north side of the mainland part of Knidos.  The statue of Aphrodite
was mounted somewhere in this section.

On the mainland side there were a lower theater and an upper theater, some temples, an Acropolis and the place where the statue of Aphrodite used to be.  The Acropolis was built high up on the hill and was like a fort to protect the city.  What happened to the statue is uncertain.  Some people think it was taken to Constantinople (Istanbul) and was later destroyed in a fire there.  Some people think that the head of the Aphrodite statue is now in England in the British Museum but the museum says that they do not have it.  The statue was near the military harbor.  The was the first nude female statue in the world and people came from all other to see her beautiful butt.  There was a trap door on the rear side of the mounted statue so tourists could see her backside.  One man was so in love with this statue that he kissed her thigh and left a permanent black mark.

Houses and narrow streets were built on this side of the
harbor.  This was called The Camels Hump.
And the military people lived there too.

The dock man said we could have the battery charger on but not the air-conditioners.  But it was so hot that Papa fixed things for us.  He put the dinghy in the water next to our boat where the water comes out when the air conditioner is running.  Then he turned off the battery charger because he said our batteries were charged enough because we had run the engine all the way to Knidos for hours.  He closed off the small front room and turned on that one air conditioner.  We stayed closed up in the little room to cool off for hours.  Papa said the one air conditioner used 5 amps and the battery charger would have used that much.  So we really weren't using any more electricity than the other boats at the restaurant dock.


The town of Datca is where the original ancient Knidos was located.  But marble was quarried at the end of the peninsula.  And there was a better harbor at the end of the peninsula.  So they moved the original ancient Knidos to the end of the peninsula where these 2 harbors are and built a big city around 360 B.C.  It was easier to bring the wine and olive oil to the harbors than to bring the quarried marble to the original harbor farther away.  


The guide book said that Knidos was deserted sometime in the Middle Ages and no one went there again until a British man visited around 1850 A.D.  The British man found a enormous stone lion.  He wrote that "the lion seemed made for the scenery, the scenery for the lion."  This lion was shipped off with lots of other antiquities to the British Museum.  That is like stealing.  The Turkish people would like to have their stuff back to put in their own museums.  

The military harbor, called Trireme Harbour.
Looks too small for 20 warships to me.

The trade harbor has not silted in.  It is the only ancient trade harbor in Turkey that has not silted in.  The harbor at Caunos where we saw the turtles has silted in about 8 miles and the Ephesus harbor we saw has silted in more than 6 miles.  Tutu and Papa also visited ancient Patara and it was silted in several miles.  I think that the reason is because all the other harbors were near the end of rivers that emptied into the sea.  The rivers brought dirt from the mountains and slowly built up new land and the harbor went away.  In Knidos there are no rivers to carry dirt down from the mountains.  But the military harbor has silted in on the north side because most of the bad storms come from the north and the sea has brought sand into that harbor.



The north harbor or military harbor was called the Trireme Harbour and it held around 20 warships according to our guide book.  It sure looked little to me.  I know warships back then were not very big, but  I don't see how 20 boats the size of boat BeBe could fit in there!


Tutu typed this for me.  I told her what to say and she typed it because I type too slow.

A sign at Knidos.  Everything you might want to know about this place.