Diary for Paul & Tracey's Travels


Bodrum and an ancient wonder of the world

2010-07-19

Spent another relaxing morning beside the pool. After another fantastic hotel buffet lunch, we went into Bodrum again with a view to visiting the castle. Unfortunately, the castle does not open on Monday, so we decided to do the ten minute walk in land to visit one of the seven ancient wonders of the world - the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Once we left the main road we had to negotiate a thin walkway running around the back of some houses, before coming out on a quiet suburban road. We turned right to where we thought the Mausoleum must be but did not immediately see any sign of it as there was no signs and simply a whitewashed wall, and a closed metal driveway gate. On peering through the gate, we realised that this must be the entrance, and after sliding the gate back, we entered and eventually found a man to give our small entrance fee to. Halicarnassus is the name for what is now called Bodrum, and the mausoleum was originally bulit in 351BC and was 135 feet tall. Now there are only some fallen pillars and a couple of tunnels, but there are some impressive pictures of what it used to look like. After we had looked round we headed back into the town, and went into one of the many bars that hang over the water and look over the bay towards the castle. We had a nice drink whilst watching the fishes. We then caught the Dolmus back to the hotel.