MYNDOS

Topographical location
Myndos is located in the province of Mugla , in the district of Bodrum, and lies in the city of Gümüslük and was one of the Carian cities, like Strabon said, near Halikarnassos, opposite the Cape Scandaria of Cos , above the Cape Termerium.
Gümüslük is a peninsula, and the small mountain pass, which connected it with the mainland, was in ancient time, like in Knidos, probably a corridor, which divided it. The spaces, which connect Myndos with Halikarnassos, between the hills, are rich and have fertile valleys. On these valleys are windmills and settlements. This space is known as the country of the black grapes.

History
In the 2 nd millennium BC, while under the sovereignty of Minos, the Pelasgs and the Lelegs, who lived on the Island , come over to the Carian coast and removed the first settlers of Myndos and settled here. Myndos is one of the eight Carian countries built by the Lelegs.
According to Strabon the other seven were Lelegian cities: Termera, Side, Madnasa, Padasa, Uranium, Telmessos and Theangela / Syangela. According to Strabon, Maussolos, the satrap of Caria in the 4 th century BC, make six of the eight cities empty, and forced the people, who lived there, to settle over to Halikarnassos. But Myndos was free of this instruction and settled to the coast, to place where Gümüslük is today. The old city later was called Palaimindos.
The city, built by Mausolos, was constructed according to the idea of Greek city planning and the whole city was surrounded by a wall. The ruins of the city, which preserved until our time, belong to the period of Mausolos. But there are even added parts, which belong to the Roman period.
Herodot told us that in the year 500 BC, he gave a ship for the navy of Aristogoras, that Myndos was one of the first members of the Attic – Delos Sea unity and had to pay 12 Talents for taxes of the unity. Because of this high tax the city became smaller.
In the year 334 BC Alexander besieged Myndos, but as he couldn’t get the city, he turned to Halikarnassos. Later the commandants of Alexander, Ptolemaios and Asandros, defeated the satrap Orontobates in the year 333 BC and won the sovereignty about Myndos and the other Carian cities. After the empire of Alexander, Myndos was managed by the dynasty of Ptolemaios, who had their residence in Egypt (308 – 275 BC). In a later period the dynasty of Lysimakhos managed Myndos.
In the year 201 BC in the Lade Sea war the rhodian navy sheltered in the harbour of Myndos . 197 BC the city was protected by the rhodians. In the year 196 BC Myndos made an agreement with Rhodos against the Syrian king Antiokhos and became independent.
In this date the city has its first stamped coins. Later the city was managed by the Pergamon and later, in the year 133 BC, after the death of Attalos III., passed to Rome , by the testament of Attalos III. It later became one of the cities of the Roman Empire in Asia Minor.
In the year 44 BC, after the death of Caesar, Brutus and Cassius became sovereigns in Anatolia in the name of the Roman Empire and in this date Cassius sheltered his navy in the harbour of Myndos.
After this short sovereignty of Brutus and Cassius, their navy lost against M. Antonius and Rhodos got the domination about Myndos. The result of the strong management of Rhodos was uneasiness in the city, and because of that the sovereignty of the city passed again to Rome.
In the Christian period the city was called Amyndos and was a cathedral town, connected to Caria Eparchiasi. So it is possible to get information about the later periods of Myndos.
The fact, that the city was part of Caria Eparchiasi, makes it possible for us, to get information about the city by the consul lists after the year 375 AD, which take part by Hierokles.
The city was left after a big earthquake and because of the difficulties in the Middle Ages of protecting the coast side; the city has never been settled again until our time. The traces of the earthquake, which marked the end of the city, can be seen both on the East harbour, whose architectural pieces sank into the water, and on the city walls, which are preserved as of today.

Research History
The modern researches began in the year 1800 and were almost always made by travellers. In that period, even ruins of the theatre and the stadium were mentioned, which are not preserved in our time. In the 19 th century W.R. Paton and J.L. Myres toured in the city, made general examinations about the inscriptions and maintained that it was not a Lelegian settlement, but a Greek city. So they supported their thesis by advising that Stephanos Byzantion and Plinius defined Myndos as a Hellenic city.
Fr. Beaufort collected his examinations of his travel in Anatolia in the year 1811 in his work KARAMANIA and fixed in the entrance of the harbour of Gümüslük a breakwater and some ruins in the front part of the bay.
In the year 1850, faceted stone examples could be seen on the tops of the slopes and even some tombs on the exterior of the walls which attract attention. The inscriptions are less obvious.
C.T. Newton, who made examination in Myndos and in the surroundings, talks about a temple, a big church and a bath on the flatness of the harbour cost.
In the year 1950, G.E. Bean visited the city, and transmitted a lot of information, of which we still make use of today; about the harbour and the buildings, which built the texture of the city.