Bodrum, Turkey: Castle, Museums, Ruins and Getting There

Bodrum is a district of Muğla province. Its castle, built by the Knights of St John, is the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

The castle and its museum

Bodrum Castle stands on a rocky area between two harbours. In antiquity this area was an island; later it was joined to the town and became a peninsula. The plan of the castle is square, 180 × 185 m, and its five towers stand in the inner castle.

1. Built by the Knights of St JohnBuilt 1406–1523 (Governor’s Office) or 1406–1522 (Bodrum Municipality and the ministry’s directorate). The Knights used stones of the Mausoleum.
2. Left on 5 January 1523Rhodes fell in 1522, and the Knights left Bodrum on 5 January 1523.
3. A prison from 1895A bath building from the prison years gave the castle an Ottoman character.
4. Bombarded 26–28 May 1915French and British ships fired on the castle in the First World War and left it half ruined.
5. A museumScientific underwater digs began off Türkiye’s coast in the 1960s. The castle was arranged as a museum in 1964 and the museum was renamed in 1981.

Muğla Governor’s Office (Muğla Valiliği) / Bodrum Municipality / Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Kalesi» · «Bodrum Kalesi» · «Bodrum Sualtı Arkeoloji Müzesi»

The French Tower

The French Tower (Fransız Kulesi) is the highest of the five towers, 47.50 m above sea level. The others are the Italian, German, Snake and English towers.

Plan

Square, 180 × 185 m.

Walls

The parts outside the east wall are double walls. Between the double walls lie a moat (hendek) and a drawbridge (asma köprü).

Also named

A watchtower (kontrol kulesi) and the tuğra of Mahmud II, the sultan’s monogram.

Muğla Governor’s Office (Muğla Valiliği) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Kalesi»

Seven gates, fourteen cisterns

The inner castle is reached through seven gates (kapı). Coats of arms stand on them, with crosses, plain or horizontal bands, and dragon and lion figures. The inner castle has 14 cisterns (sarnıç), the one under the chapel included.

Muğla Governor’s Office (Muğla Valiliği) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Kalesi»

Today the castle is the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology (Bodrum Sualtı Arkeoloji Müzesi). It has 14 exhibition halls. Its collection runs from the 14th century BC to the 16th century AD, and in 1995 it won a «Special Commendation» in the European Museum of the Year competition.

Bodrum Municipality / Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) / Muğla Governor’s Office (Muğla Valiliği) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Sualtı Arkeoloji Müzesi» · «Bodrum Sualtı Arkeoloji Müzesi» · «Bodrum Kalesi»

The Glass Wreck and other wrecks

The Serçe Limanı Glass Wreck Hall (Serçe Limanı Cam Batığı Salonu) shows a boat that sank in 1025. 3 tonnes of broken and whole glass came out of it. Wrecks from Yassıada and Şeytan Deresi are shown too.

Three ships were dug at Yassıada, an island about 3.5 nautical miles off Turgutreis: a Late Roman ship of the 5th century AD, a Byzantine ship of the 7th century and an Ottoman ship of the 16th century.

Bodrum Municipality / Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Sualtı Arkeoloji Müzesi» · «Bodrum Sualtı Arkeoloji Müzesi»

Open-air display

The central courtyard holds altars, statues and architectural pieces from the Bodrum peninsula and Caria, anchors and a medieval iron cannon.

«Kale Camii/Şapel»

The ministry’s page has this heading (castle mosque / chapel). The Knights built a chapel there in the 15th century, probably over an older building; Spanish knights repaired it in Gothic style in the early 16th century. After 1523 it was made a mosque with a minaret. Under a glass floor lie Byzantine graves and foundation remains from the time of Mausolos in the 4th century BC.

World Heritage

On Türkiye’s tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage since 2016.

Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Sualtı Arkeoloji Müzesi»

Halicarnassus: tomb, theatre and gate

Halicarnassus (Halikarnassos) is the ancient town of today’s Bodrum. The Dorians founded it about 1000 BC where the castle stands, on what was then an island, as Herodotus tells it. Mausolos moved the capital of the Carian satrapy, a province under Persian rule, to Halicarnassus. Alexander the Great took the region in 334 BC and the Romans in 133 BC.

Bodrum Municipality · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Tarihi»

The Mausoleum (Maussolleion)

Ancient authors count the tomb among the Seven Wonders, and the word mozole (mausoleum) comes from it. Pytheos and Satyros were its architects. The terrace measured 105 × 242 m and the tomb stood about 50 m high: a high podium, a section with 36 Ionic columns, a roof of 24 steps and, on top, a quadriga (a four-horse chariot) with statues of Mausolos and Artemisia.

Address

Tepecik Mahallesi, Turgutreis Caddesi, No: 93, 48400 Bodrum

Inside

After the ticket desk (gişe), the hall on the left holds the plan, a model, plaster copies of the friezes, small finds and two original relief pieces.

Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Maussolleion»

1. 353 BCMausolos ruled Caria as satrap, the Persian governor, for 24 years. The tomb was begun in his lifetime, and his wife continued it after his death in 353 BC.
2. AD 1304The tomb fell in an earthquake after standing about 1,650 years. The Knights arrived in 1402, found it fallen and took the stones for the castle.
3. 1846–1858The remains were taken to the British Museum, in 1846 and in 1856–1858.
4. 1966–1982A Danish team dug the site from 1966 to 1977, and the museum was arranged in 1982.

Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) / Bodrum Municipality · checked 31.10.2026 · «Maussolleion» · «Mausoleion»

The ancient theatre (Antik Tiyatro)

Built in the 4th century BC on the south slope of Göktepe hill, in the middle of Bodrum. The seating (cavea) is horseshoe-shaped and cut from the rock, with marble blocks; a horizontal passage splits the seats, and 11 stairways make 12 sections. Bodrum Municipality calls it one of the oldest theatres in Anatolia.

Seats

Bodrum Municipality: 13,000, with 40 cm between seats. The ministry’s directorate: thought to be about 10,000.

Digs and restoration

1973, 1983 and 2002–2003 (the ministry’s directorate).

Address

Yeniköy Mahallesi, Kıbrıs Şehitleri Caddesi

Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) / Bodrum Municipality · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Antik Tiyatro» · «Antik Tiyatro»

The Myndos Gate (Myndos Kapısı)

The gate is believed to have been built in the 360s BC, west of Halicarnassus. It has two monumental towers and an inner courtyard. Ditches of the 4th century BC outside it foiled Alexander’s attack of 334 BC. The first phase of repairs to the walls and towers north of the gate was finished in 1999.

Bodrum Municipality · checked 31.10.2026 · «Myndos Kapısı»

More places on the ministry’s list

For Bodrum the ministry’s directorate lists the museums and sites already named, the ancient cities of Myndos and Pedasa, and 21 unarranged ruin sites (düzenlenmemiş örenyerleri), each with its village. Eight of them: Myndos (Gümüşlük), Pedasa (Konacık), Karyanda (Güvercinlik), Kadyanda (Göltürkbükü), Theangela (Çiftlik), Telmessos (Dirmil-Gökçebel), Termera (Karaincir) and Anastasiapolis (Kissebükü).

Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum»

Zeki Müren Art Museum (Zeki Müren Sanat Müzesi)

The directorate lists the museum among Bodrum’s museums. The sign over the entrance reads «T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı · Zeki Müren Sanat Müzesi»: T.C. stands for Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Türkiye), Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı is the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and sanat is art.

Muğla Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (the ministry’s directorate) · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum Zeki Müren Sanat Müzesi» · «Bodrum»

Public beaches and the 2026 season

Bodrum Municipality keeps a list of public beaches (halk plajı) with their facilities and the 2026 season.

What the Blue Flag asks of a beach operator is in Blue Flag Beaches in Turkey. Marmaris, also in Muğla province, has its own page: Marmaris Beaches.

MGM, the state weather service (Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü) · checked 31.10.2026 · The sea-temperature list includes a Bodrum station · «Deniz Suyu Sıcaklıkları» (Piri Reis)

Getting there and around

MUTTAŞ, the transport company of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality, has 54 lines on its Bodrum page. The airport line is 48-24, Bodrum Şehir Merkezi – Milas/Bodrum Havalimanı (Bodrum city centre – Milas-Bodrum Airport).

Stops

Bodrum Torba Otogar, a stop in the centre of Güvercinlik and the airport, and the same stops back.

Times

Outbound services leave Bodrum city centre 2 hours before the departure of a domestic flight. The times are planned and may change with weather, traffic, breakdowns, accidents and changes or cancellations of flights.

At the airport

The vehicles meet passengers arriving on domestic flights. By decision of the airport management, passengers are not dropped off or picked up at the stop for international flights.

On board

No reservations and no advance ticket sales on the airport vehicles. Credit cards are valid on all vehicles.

MUTTAŞ, the transport company of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality · checked 31.10.2026 · «48-24 Bodrum Şehir Merkezi – Milas/Bodrum Havalimanı» · «Havalimanı Hatları Ücret Tarifesi» (Bodrum, valid from 18.05.2026)

Two longer lines: 48-1, Menteşe (Muğla) – Yatağan – Bodrum, 100 km, and 48-48, Bodrum – Datça, 34 km.

MUTTAŞ, the transport company of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality · checked 31.10.2026 · «Bodrum» line list

Fire season: the forest rule

The dates are those of the 2026 list. Orman is forest and yasak is banned.

Turkish words and lines to say

Local words are explained where they first appear. Here they are once more, then the lines to say, each with a Copy button.

kale

castle

kule

tower

kapı

gate

sarnıç

cistern

hendek

moat

müze

museum

sualtı

underwater

gişe

ticket desk

otogar

bus station

halk plajı

public beach

cankurtaran

lifeguard

orman

forest

yasak

banned

Sources and limits

Figures, dates and names are as the pages printed them on 31.10.2026; the 2026 season, the fares and the forest measures are those of 2026. The drawing in the tool is schematic: only the 47.50 m height is a printed figure. The sources disagree on the building years of the castle (1406–1523 and 1406–1522), the address of the Mausoleum museum and the capacity of the theatre; each is given with its owner. Every photo is from Wikimedia Commons, with author, date, licence and file page in its caption.