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Muğla () is a city in southwestern Turkey. The city is the center of the District of Menteşe and Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey's Aegean coast. Muğla's center is situated inland at an altitude of 660 m and lies at a distance of about from the nearest seacoast in the Gulf of Gökova to its south-west. Muğla (Menteşe) district area neighbors the district areas of Milas,
Yatağan The yatagan, yataghan or ataghan (from Turkish language, Turkish ''yatağan''), also called varsak, is a type of Ottoman Empire, Ottoman knife or short sabre used from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries. The yatagan was extensively used in Otto ...
and Kavaklıdere to its north by north-west and those of Ula and Köyceğiz, all of whom are dependent districts. Muğla is the administrative capital of a province that incorporates internationally well-known and popular tourist resorts such as Bodrum, Marmaris, Datça,
Dalyan Dalyan is a town in Muğla Province located between the districts of Marmaris and Fethiye on the south-west coast of Turkey. The town is an independent municipality, within the administrative district of Ortaca. Dalyan achieved international ...
, Fethiye, Ölüdeniz and also the smaller resort of
Sarigerme Sarıgerme is a beach near Osmaniye Village in Ortaca district, Muğla Province, south-west Turkey. It is a holiday destination with a beach and shops. It also has a post office (pictured) as well as a few places to drink and eat. There are ...
.


Geography

The district area's physical features are determined by several pot-shaped high plains, delimited by mountains, of which the largest is the one where the city of Muğla is located and which is called under the same name (''Muğla Plain''). It is surrounded by steep slopes denuded of soil, paved with calcerous geology, and a scrub cover which gives the immediate vicinity of Muğla a barren appearance uncharacteristic of its region. Arable land is limited to valley floors.


Economy

Its former profile as a predominantly rural, difficult to access, isolated and underpopulated region enclosed by a rugged mountainous complex is now coming to an end. Also in recent years, a major program of restoration of the city's architectural heritage has enhanced local tourism. The city remains an orderly, compact, and provincial agricultural center. The city which retains its old neighborhoods, not having succumbed to the mid-20th century boom in concrete reconstruction, but displays a progressive mind as exemplified by the pride still expressed at having had Turkey's first female provincial governor in the 1990s,
Lale Aytaman Dr. Lale Aytaman (born 1944) was the governor of Muğla province in Turkey from 1991 to 1995 and the first female governor of Turkey. Education Lale Aytaman finished St. George's Austrian High School ( tr, Avusturya Kız Lisesi) in Istanbul. S ...
. Nevertheless, Muğla still lacks sizeable manufacturing and processing centers, and its economy relies on trade, crafts, services, tourism, and agriculture. Therefore, tourism in Muğla is a great opportunity for local community employment, and its fertile soil and amenable climate provide a variety of products for people working in the agricultural sector.


History


Classical antiquity

In ancient times, Muğla was apparently a minor settlement: A halfway-point along the passage between the Carian cities of
Idrias Idrias ( grc, Ἰδριάς) was a town of ancient Caria. It has been suggested that Idrias could be identified with the city that the Hittite texts of the Bronze Age call Atriya. Herodotus cites the territory of Idrias, which he names Idriade wh ...
(later Stratonicea) to the north and
Idyma Idyma ( grc, Ἴδυμα), or Idymus or Idymos (Ἴδυμος), was a coastal town of ancient Caria, strategically placed at the head of a gulf, near the Idymos (Ἴδυμος) river. It is located in the modern town of Gökova. In 546 BCE, ...
(modern Akyaka) to the southwest on the coast. The indigenous name Mobolla, over time corrupted into "Mogolla" and then further into the modern "Muğla", appears for the first time in the beginning of the 2nd century BCE at the time of its region's passage from what was apparently an eastern Carian federation linked with Taba (modern
Tavas Tavas is a town and a district of Denizli Province of Turkey, on a wide plain on the road to Muğla, near to the district of Kale (and often the two are linked in one breath ''Kale-Tavas''). Population is around 12,720 History The area has been oc ...
) and other cities to
Rhodian Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...
domination. Mobolla was part of the Rhodian
Peraea Peraia, and Peraea or Peræa (from grc, ἡ περαία, ''hē peraia'', "land across") in Classical Antiquity referred to "a community's territory lying 'opposite', predominantly (but not exclusively) a mainland possession of an island state" a ...
on a firm basis as of 167 BCE until at least the 2nd century CE. The Rhodian territory started here and while region was subject to Rhodes, it was not incorporated in the Rhodian state. There are almost no ruins to reveal the history of the settlement of Mobolla. On the high hill to the north of the city, a few ancient remains indicate that it was the site of an
acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...
. A handful of inscriptions were unearthed within the city itself and they date back to the 2nd century BC. In 2018, archaeologists unearthed a 2,300 year-old rock sepulchre of an ancient Greek boxer named
Diagoras of Rhodes Diagoras of Rhodes (; el, Διαγόρας ὁ Ῥόδιος) was an Ancient Greek boxer from the 5th century BC, who was celebrated for his own victories, as well as the victories of his sons and grandsons. He was a member of the Eratidea fa ...
, 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. The shrine, used as a pilgrimage by locals until the 1970s, also has the potential to be the only pyramid grave in Turkey. 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.”'' In 2018, archaeological ruins and mosaics discovered in the city have been confirmed to belong to the villa of the Greek fisherman Phainos, who lived in the 2nd century CE. Phainos was the richest and the most famous fisherman of his time.


Turkish conquest

Turkish-era Muğla also remained a minor site in the beginning despite having been captured relatively early for western Anatolia in the course of the 13th century. The local ruling dynasty of Menteşe had their capital in Milas.


Ottoman and Republican periods

Muğla acquired regional importance after it replaced Milas as the seat of the subprovince ( sanjak) under the Ottoman Empire in 1420. The sanjak kept the name Menteşe until the Republican Era, when it was renamed Muğla after its seat of government.


Climate

Muğla has a rather humid Mediterranean climate ( Köppen: ''Csa'',
Trewartha Trewartha and Andrewartha are Cornish family names (and placename, Dexter). There are places called Trewartha in the parishes of Merther, St Agnes, St Neot and Veryan. According to the ''Handbook of Cornish Names'' by G. Pawley White, "Trew ...
: 'wet' ''Cs'' or ''Cf''). It is characterised by long, hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters.


Places of interest

Although it is close to major resorts, Muğla has only recently begun to attract visitors. Sights of interest in the city include: * Great Mosque of Muğla (''Ulu Cami'') – large mosque built in 1344 by the Beys of Menteşe * Konakaltı Han and Yağcılar Han – restored 18th century
caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes covering ...
s, the first used as an art gallery and facing Muğla Museum, and the second used for more commercial purposes * ''Kurşunlu Cami'' – large mosque built in 1495 * Muğla City Museum has a good collection of archaeological and ethnographical artefacts, and 9 million year-old animal and plant fossils, recently discovered in nearby Kaklıcatepe * the Ottoman Empire-era bazaar (''Arasta'') – marked by a clock tower built by a Greek craftsman named Filivari Usta in 1895 * Vakıflar
Hamam A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited f ...
– a still operating Turkish bath which dates back to 1258 The old quarter of Muğla – on the slopes and around Saburhane Square (''Meydanı''), consisting of about four hundred registered old houses dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, many of which are restored. These houses are mainly in the Turkish / Ottoman style, characterized by ''hayat'' ("courtyard") sections accessed through double-shuttered doors called ''kuzulu kapı'' ("lamb doors") and dotted with chimneys typical of Muğla. But there are also a number of "Greek" houses. The differences between the two types of houses may have as much to do with the extent to which wood or stone were used in their architecture, and whether they were arranged in introverted or extraverted styles, as with who inhabited them previously. Local students tend to hang out in open air cafés along the İzmir highway, or in the caravanserai, or in ''Sanat Evi'' ("Art House") – an Ottoman-style residence that has been turned into a café / art gallery exhibiting principally wood carvings. File:Mugla museum 6214.jpg, Muğla Museum Gladiator gravestone File:Mugla museum 6215.jpg, Muğla Museum Gladiator gravestone File:Mugla museum 6217.jpg, Muğla Museum Gladiator gravestone File:Mugla museum 6219.jpg, Muğla Museum Gladiator gravestone File:Mugla museum 6220.jpg, Muğla Museum Gladiator gravestone File:Mugla museum 6222.jpg, Muğla Museum Gladiator gravestone File:Mugla museum 6237.jpg, Muğla Museum Gladiators in small ceramic File:Mugla museum 6235.jpg, Muğla Museum Small ceramic File:Mugla museum 6226.jpg, Muğla Museum Statuettes File:Mugla museum 6238.jpg, Muğla Museum Child bathing ceramic File:Mugla museum 6247.jpg, Muğla Museum Stage mask File:Mugla museum 6254.jpg, Muğla Museum Museum courtyard File:Mugla museum 6255.jpg, Muğla Museum Frieze File:Mugla museum 6211.jpg, Muğla Museum Frieze File:Mugla museum 4223.jpg, Muğla Museum Frieze File:Mugla museum 5742.jpg, Muğla Museum Christian decoration File:Mugla museum 5743.jpg, Muğla Museum Seljuk plaque File:Mugla museum 5792.jpg, Muğla Museum Interior File:Mugla Chmineys 006.jpg, Muğla Chimneys File:Mugla Chmineys 5813.jpg, Muğla Chimneys File:Mugla Clock tower 5718.jpg, Muğla Clock tower File:Mugla Old houses 5826.jpg, Muğla Old houses File:Mugla Old houses 5827.jpg, Muğla Old houses File:Mugla Old houses 5854.jpg, Muğla Old houses File:Mugla Old houses 5857.jpg, Muğla Old houses File:Mugla Old houses 5862.jpg, Muğla Old houses File:Mugla great mosque.jpg, Muğla great mosque File:Mugla Şhahidi Camii 6278.jpg, Muğla Şhahidi Camii File:Mugla Şhahidi Camii 5840.jpg, Muğla Şhahidi Camii File:Mugla Şahidi Camii 6279.jpg, Muğla Şhahidi Camii File:Mugla Şeyh Camii 6293.jpg, Muğla Şeyh Camii File:Mugla Şeyh Camii 6302.jpg, Muğla Şeyh Camii File:Mugla Kurşunlu Camii 5706.jpg, Muğla Kurşunlu Camii Front File:Mugla Kurşunlu Camii 5679.jpg, Muğla Kurşunlu Camii File:Mugla Kurşunlu Camii 5684.jpg, Muğla Kurşunlu Camii File:Mugla Kurşunlu Camii 5692.jpg, Muğla Kurşunlu Camii Painting of Mecca File:Mugla Konakaltı Han 5736.jpg, Muğla Konakaltı Han File:Mugla Konakaltı Han 5794.jpg, Muğla Konakaltı Han File:Mugla Hacıkadı Evi 5724.jpg, Muğla Hacıkadı Evi File:Mugla Hacıkadı Evi 5729.jpg, Muğla Hacıkadı Evi File:Oldstreet Mugla Turkey.jpg, A street in the old quarter File:Muğla 5.JPG, Buildings in the new part of the city. File:Muğla 38.jpg, An old photograph of Muğla chimneys. File:Muğla 95.JPG, A traditional house. File:Muğla 67.jpg, Muğla in 19th century. File:Muğla 9932.JPG, Cityscape from Mount Asar File:Muğla 9913.JPG, Old quarter of the city. File:Muğla 188.JPG, Cityscape from Mount Asar File:Muğla cityscape.jpg, Cityscape from Mount Asar File:Muğla 9923.JPG, Old quarter of the city.


Politics

Muğla's political color has traditionally been center-left. In Turkey's 2004 local elections, Dr. Osman Gürün ( CHP) was re-elected, increasing his votes to 43.28%, aided in this by the abrupt virtual collapse of the other center-left party the DSP. The 2004 elections were the seventh successive victory for the center-left candidates in the Muğla municipality. Turkey's incumbent AKP and the traditional center-right DYP have each obtained (24.5–24.75%). In 2009 communal elections, MHP made a significant leap in votes and reached 24.2% of votes cast. CHP had collected almost half of the votes at 46%.


Sports

The local football club,
Muğlaspor Muğlaspor is a sports club in located in Muğla, Turkey. The football club plays in the Turkish Regional Amateur League The Turkish Regional Amateur League ( tr, Bölgesel Amatör Ligi) is the fifth tier of the Turkish football league syst ...
currently compete in the third tier of the Turkish football pyramid.


Notable people from Muğla

* Şahidi İbrahim Dede – 15th–16th century
Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
poet *
Basil Zaharoff Sir Basil Zaharoff, GCB, GBE (born Vasileios Zacharias; el, Βασίλειος Zαχαρίας Ζαχάρωφ; October 6, 1849 – November 27, 1936) was a Greek arms dealer and industrialist. One of the richest men in the world during his ...
(Βασίλειος Ζαχάρωφ) - Muğla, 1849 - Monte Carlo, 1936, Greek arms dealer and industrialist *
Nail Çakırhan Nail Çakırhan (1910-2008) was a Turkish poet and journalist in his career in the beginning, and later a self-taught and award-winning architect and restorer who left his print particularly in the architecture of the coastal township of Akyaka ...
– 20th century poet and architect *
Zihni Derin Zihni Derin (1880–1965) was a Turkish agronomist and agriculturalist noted primarily for his pioneering role in tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis ...
– 20th century agronomist and agriculturalist who pioneered tea production in Turkey Due to the particularity of its location, commanding a large part of Anatolia's southwestern coast and a number of busy district centers, Muğla is also notable by the large number of people who, short of being natives in the strict sense, had associations of one sort or another with the city, including among its small Greek minority until the 1923 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Among these can be listed: * Arms trading tycoon
Basil Zaharoff Sir Basil Zaharoff, GCB, GBE (born Vasileios Zacharias; el, Βασίλειος Zαχαρίας Ζαχάρωφ; October 6, 1849 – November 27, 1936) was a Greek arms dealer and industrialist. One of the richest men in the world during his ...
, whose family were actually Greeks of the Ottomnan capital but who was born in Muğla in 1849 * The French actress of Greek descent
Anna Mouglalis Anna Mouglalis ( el, Άννα Μουγλάλη; born 26 April 1978) is a French actress and model. She is known for being a house ambassador for Chanel since 2002, and for portraying the fashion designer Coco Chanel in the 2009 film '' Coco Chan ...
, as attested by her name, can trace her roots to the city * Mining and poultry magnate Yavuz Sıtkı Koçman (d. 2002) who contributed an important part of his fortune to building the university in the 1990s


See also

* Caria *
Menteşe (district) Menteşe is a planned district and second level municipality in Muğla Province, Turkey. According to the 2012 Metropolitan Municipalities Law (law no. 6360), all Turkish provinces with a population more than 750,000 will become metropolitan muni ...
* Menteşe (beylik) (
Anatolian beyliks Anatolian beyliks ( tr, Anadolu beylikleri, Ottoman Turkish: ''Tavâif-i mülûk'', ''Beylik'' ) were small principalities (or petty kingdoms) in Anatolia governed by beys, the first of which were founded at the end of the 11th century. A secon ...
) *
Muğla University Muğla () is a city in southwestern Turkey. The city is the center of the District of List of districts in Turkey, Menteşe and Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey's Aegean Sea, Aegean coast. Muğla's center is situated inland at an alt ...
*
Mesut of Menteşe Mesut was a bey of Menteshe, one of the Anatolian beyliks (principalities). Background In the second half of the 13th century, the Seljuks of Anatolia became the puppet of the Mongols and the vassal Turkmen tribes began to act independently. Me ...


Footnotes


References


Sources

*


External links


Muğla Municipality

Several hundreds of pictures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mugla Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey Caria Cities in Turkey Districts of Muğla Province Populated places in Muğla Province