April 18: Bodrum in the Rain

We woke up this morning thinking that we were early to rise, but we were rather later than usual, not really stirring until 8:00.  The sky was so overcast that it seemed much earlier, and promised rain, a promise that it more than delivered.  We saw the yachts and harbour of Bodrum, and we saw the Maritime Archaeological Museum, located in St. Peter’s castle, in the rain.  This museum is dedicated to finds that sponge divers and others have found in the coastal waters off Turkey, and include two amazing shipwrecks that are almost entirely intact.  We saw the remnants of the Tomb of Mausoleus in a very heavy rain, and attempted to wait out part of the storm in the thieves’ tunnel.  We then walked up to the theatre in the rain, then, soaked through, we walked back to our hotel, took a wrong turn, and ended up with a wet but scenic hike through the entire town. 

We walked along the harbour road against a strong wind, and as we walked past the terrace at the Starbucks where we had coffee only hours before, we saw the ocean come splashing onto the deck.  The first forty feet of the ocean is a muddy brown colour today from the runoff, as we noticed further north in the last heavy rain.  We lost track of the number of inside-out umbrellas that were being abandoned in the trash as the tourists scrambled back to their hotels.  Not us!  We had one day in Bodrum and were going to see it, in spite of high water!  We saw the yachts and harbour of Bodrum, and the wind whistling through all the rigging was loud enough that we had to shout over it.

We ducked into the Maritime Archaeological Museum, located in St. Peter’s castle, a Crusader Castle built from the “spoilia”, or remains of other buildings, in this case, mainly the Tomb of Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  We hired the audio guides as a special treat.  The museum consists both of the castle, and its history as a Crusader outpost, complete with torture tower; and of various shipwrecks, which are painstakingly put together to give a sense of how the original ship must have looked. 

The first exhibit is a huge display of amphorae, the ubiquitous earthen vessels with two handles and a pointed bottom which were used for shipping in this are for thousands of years.

Next, in what was once the chapel of the castle and then a mosque, we saw a recreation of a Roman Ship from the 7th century A.D and a display of some of the types of goods that have been recovered from such shipwrecks. 

the chapel exterior, with Ian in front

The life size recreation of the top deck of the vessel.

The Crusader Castle not only destroyed the Mausoleum, but also the Palace of Mausolus, built as it was in the best part of the marbour, on what was once a tiny island just off shore.  A few remains of the original structure could be seen here and there.

Traces of the old ramp of King Mausolus

 We were especially excited to get into the “Glass Ship” exhibit, as it is only open for a few random hours per day, due to the sensitive nature of the ship itself.  Some of the original wood from this wreck of an Arabic ship of the 11th century  is on display in a recreation of the ship.  It was carrying nearly 2 tons of raw glass culets and nearly 1 ton of broken pieces of glass from the southern part of the Syrian coast, to a glass factory for re-melting and remaking the glass somewhere either in Crimea or the lower Danube region. We were just finishing our viewing of the findings when we were politely informed that the exhibition was closing at 12:00.  We didn’t know that all of the exhibition halls were closed from 12 – 1.

Except for right around the amphorae, these are the original timbers.

Some of the glass pieces that were packed into baskets

These are padlocks of different types.  The keys were still in them, indicating that they were not in use.

These are called "philters" and are made of alabaster.

The crew was apparently heavily armed.

We climbed all over the castle, partly because we were locked out of the exhibits for the staff lunch hour, and managed to avoid the first very heavy shower by hiding in the English tower, along with every other tourist brave enough to face the elements. 

This stained glass window shows the coats of arms of the English Knights.

 We were able to get into the rather kitschy dungeon, really the base of a tower, which was walled up when the Turks overran the castle and took possession.  When the museum archaeologists opened it almost 500 years later, they found human skeletons and the chains used to hang them from the walls.

We walked around the curtain wall as far as we dared, given the very strong winds on the seaward side.  We learned all about the shelling of the castle in the First World War, and how Bodrum had managed to withstand a French offensive.

the latrine.  Not quite as civilized as a Roman Latrine, since solids were removed from the front, and liquids ran into the basement.

The curtain wall -- no railing and high winds!

Finally the exhibits reopened, and we got to see the Bronze Age ruin, which sank at the end of the 14^th Century BCE.  The exhibit is amazing, showing and explaining not only all of the treasure the ship carried, but its location in the original wreck, and even showing a model of the ship as it must have looked leaving port.  It was worth waiting for!

A recreation of the ship as it was leaving the dock.  Below is a recreation of the ocean floor, as it looked when the divers fist arrived.

Because of the depth, divers could only stay at the site for 25 minutes at a time, and could make only one diver per day.  the recovery effort took years and thousands of dives.

A small selection of the goods recovered, including this amphorae full of glass beads, and numerous fig seeds!  Apparently dried figs were (and still are!) used to seal bottles.

My favourite  was this writing book -- original at top and recreation below -- that was filled with beeswax and used for taking notes.  The Blackberry of its day!

By this time we longed for a cup of tea, and headed into one of the restaurants on the harbour front, missing the next heavy rain squall.  When it eased a little, we headed off for the tomb of Mausolus, and from that point on, we were in very heavy rain.

Not much is left of the tomb, and from the models one sees, that is amazing!  How could such an immense structure be destroyed?  I have seen the surviving bits in the British Museum, and it was quite interesting to see the actual tomb chamber, now missing its megaton top, but rather sad to think that so little is left otherwise.  Scholars and ancient writers have given us a pretty good idea of what it looked like.

Next, we parted the curtain of rain with every step and went up to the theatre, and climbed it, as is our wont.  Although it has the amazing view of every Greek theatre, the noisy highway is only a few feet away from the orchestra, and although they do live performances here in the summer, I wonder how anyone can hear them!

We started our walk down the hill, made more difficult because there was no place to cross the highway, and the median was full of freshly rototilled mud.  By this time we were squelching with every step and didn’t think we could get any wetter.  We had an hour to find out, as we overshot our road to the hotel by a couple of blocks, and ended up back near the castle.  This allowed us to pass the Post Office, where I was able to mail a letter, and got the notion that postal employees are the same all over the world.  I stood there dripping, while the clerk two feet in front of me studiously ignored me while stamping photocopies.

Looking like drowned rats, we walked the busy beach front street, to have every shop keeper and restaurant owner rush to the door and ask us inside.  I couldn’t believe that they would even have let us inside, given that we were drenched.

I always wondered why they put a sidewalk down a road that is only six feet wide!

The lane to our hotel -- a few inches deep!

Our wet things – wet down to the underwear – are dripping in the bathroom, and we are enjoying some quiet reading time.  I am trying to figure out how to take all of our wet clothes on the ferry early in the morning, but I imagine I will just convert one of the backpacks to dirty laundry, and throw the computer into a suitcase.  We will need a laundry day soon!

So off to Kos in the morning.