Halicarnassus was a prominent coastal city of ancient Caria, located on the southwestern shore of Asia Minor, in modern-day Bodrum, Turkey. It was strategically positioned on a natural harbor, which facilitated trade, naval activity, and cultural exchange across the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. The city was renowned for its architectural grandeur, most famously the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, a monumental tomb built circa 350 BCE, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

As a cultural and administrative center, Halicarnassus reflected a blend of influences, combining indigenous Carian traditions with Greek, Persian, and later Roman elements. Its urban layout included fortified walls, temples, theaters, and marketplaces, demonstrating advanced planning and civic organization. Beyond its architectural achievements, the city played an important role in regional politics, commerce, and artistic patronage, making it a key hub in the ancient Aegean world.

circa 1000 BCE- present

The history of ancient Halicarnassus, located on the Bodrum peninsula in southwestern Anatolia, began as a Proto-Carian settlement before circa 1000 BCE. The indigenous Carians established small fortified communities, engaging in agriculture, metalworking, and maritime trade, as evidenced by burial tumuli, Mycenaean-style pottery, and bronze tools uncovered at Musgebi and Turgut. The arrival of Dorian Greeks in the Early Iron Age led to hybrid Carian–Greek settlements, with streets laid out in orthogonal patterns, syncretic religious practices, and growing trade networks linking the city to the Aegean, Ionian cities, and the Levant.

During the Archaic period and Classical period, Halicarnassus matured into a fully organized polis and the capital of Caria under the Hecatomnid dynasty. Leaders such as Mausolus and Artemisia I oversaw political, economic, and cultural development, including the construction of the Mausoleum—one of the Seven Wonders—palatial complexes, temples, and theaters. The city flourished as a maritime hub, maintaining Greek civic structures while integrating Persian administrative practices. Following Alexander the Great’s siege in 334 BCE, Ada of Caria maintained dynastic continuity, and Halicarnassus continued to evolve through the Hellenistic period, adapting to shifting Macedonian, Ptolemaic, and Seleucid influences.

Under Roman during the empire period and Byzantine rule, Halicarnassus retained its urban significance, adopting Roman civic infrastructure, aqueducts, forums, and later Christian churches, while continuing maritime trade and regional administration. During the medieval period, the Knights of St. John constructed the Castle of St. Peter using stones from ancient structures, and Ottoman control further altered the cityscape. Modern excavations, beginning with Charles Newton in the 19th century, revealed the Mausoleum, theater, fortifications, and inscriptions, illuminating a multi-layered history that reflects the city’s evolution from Proto-Carian settlement to cosmopolitan classical and Hellenistic capital, leaving a rich archaeological and cultural legacy.

circa 377 BCE

Mausolian City Walls
The ancient Halicarnassus city walls were built in 377 BCE by King Mausolos to protect his newly established Carian capital city, Halikarnassos.

Mausolos became satrap in 375 BCE, after the death of Hekatomnos, Mausolos’ father and the previous Karian satrap. Mausolos decided to move the capital from Mylasa (Milas) to Halikarnassos (Bodrum). Political change was the catalyst for the move to ancient Halikarnassos due to its potential as a natural harbour on the ancient sea trade routes and its landscape suitable for fortification protection.

this was a significant moment in the Carian hsitory, as Mausolus aimed to build a metropolis that riveled the great city of ancient Athens and its famous architects, planners, artists and magnificient architecture of the time. It competed not just in terms of urban planning, urbanization, and architecture, but also in establishing and refining the Karian culture.

Mausolos rebuilt the old Karian city of Halikarnassos, establishing a community comprising of the peoples from other ancient smaller settlements in the region's surrounding hills. Construction activities during this period were immense, with spectacular monumental and architectural structures to help establish Halikarnassos as an important political and military naval base in the Aegean. Archaeological markers that point to Halikarnassos once being a rich and flourishing city are few, such as the once great city wall and scant remains of the king's Mausoleum etc. The new construction project of the city wall and its fortifications in the later part of the fourth century BCE, implemented by Mausolos, was a pioneering masterpiece of superior polyorcetic military engineering in Anatolia.

King Mausolos ruled Karia and his capital for 24 years until his death around 353 BCE. The city was attacked and majorly damaged in Alexander the Great's Siege of Halicarnassus in 334 BCE. Between 2020-2022 CE, Academia Founddion (Akademia Vakfi) completed the cleaning, excavation and presentation for a walking path of the 1.5 kilometer along a section of the wall between Bardakci and Myndos Gate.

circa 377 BCE

Myndus Gate
The only major surviving monumental gate of the seven kilometers long ancient city wall of Halikarnassos was built by king Mausolos in the first half of the fourth century BCE. The towers, original height is not known, were constructed of andesite stone blocks. The restoration of the gate has been accomplished based on the data obtained from archaeological excavations and research around the site. There are three entrances to the courtyard of the gateway on the eastern side of the tower. With the exception of the eastern gateway it is not clear whether two auxiliary entrances may also mark a date from the 4th century BCE. The gateway to the east of the courtyard led to the ancient city of Bodrum.

circa 351 BCE

Tomb of Mausolus
The tomb of king Mausolus, or more commonly known as Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, constructed circa 350 BCE, stood as both a political statement and an artistic culmination of cross-cultural synthesis within the Achaemenid-controlled region of Caria. Commissioned by Artemisia II in honor of her husband and brother, Mausolus, the satrap of Caria, the structure was conceived as a monumental fusion of Greek architectural precision, Near Eastern monumentalism, and local Carian funerary tradition. Rising to an estimated height of around 45 meters, the mausoleum combined a stepped podium, a colonnaded peristyle of Ionic order, and a pyramidal roof surmounted by a sculptural quadriga.

Its decorative program, executed by leading sculptors such as Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus, and Leochares, portrayed mythological scenes that reflected both Greek artistic ideals and the political imagery of dynastic authority. Ancient authors, including Pliny the Elder and Vitruvius, regarded it as a marvel of proportion and craftsmanship, establishing its place among the canonical Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Although the structure was largely destroyed by successive earthquakes between the 12th and 15th centuries CE, archaeological excavations—most notably by Charles T. Newton in the 19th century CE—revealed substantial fragments of the sculptural reliefs and architectural elements, now housed primarily in the British Museum. These remains continue to inform scholarly understanding of the dialogue between art, power, and identity in late Classical Anatolia.

circa 334 BCE

Defensive Moat
Dug for defensive purposes in the fourth century BCE, the moat of Halicarnassus measured approx. 56 meters in length and 7 meters in width and 2.5 meters deep. The moat surrounded the southern towers and walls against attacks by siege weapons, such as catapults and battering rams etc. According to historian Ariannos, during the siege of Halikarnassos laid by Alexander the Great in 334 BCE;

...collapse of a narrow bridge over the moat resulted in many casualties in addition to the ones who fell into the moat or were trampled, many died in front of the gate.