In the gulf of southwestern Turkey, there is a port city called Bodrum, the birthplace of Herodotus, the "father of history" in Greece, and is home to many ancient architectural sites. The Bodrum Castle introduced in this article is located in the territory of Bodrum City, Bodrum Castle was built during the Ottoman Empire, but its builders were not Turks, but one of the three major European knights, the Knights Hospitaller.
Bodrum Castle
In July 1402, as the peninsula of Asia Minor became embroiled in battle, Timur, king of Central Asia, led a large army against Bayezid I of the Ottoman Empire, and the two sides fought a decisive battle in the Ankara region, which resulted in Bayezid I failing to resist the fierce army from Central Asia, and he himself became a prisoner.
For the members of the Knights Hospitaller stationed in the city of Smyrna, they may have celebrated the news of Bayezid I's defeat, because Bayezid I had besieged the city of Smyrna several times, and he was the sworn enemy of the Knights Hospitaller.
But what the European knights did not expect was that soon after the Battle of Ankara, Timur arrived at the city of Smyrna, the king of Central Asia, who had captured the city that the Turks had besieged for years without victory.
Timur, king of Central Asia
After the fall of Smyrna, Timur ordered his men to massacre the defenders and inhabitants of the city, as was customary, and the city of Smyrna was razed to the ground. Some of the knights who escaped the holocaust began to find another way out, either to Rhode Island or to Bodrum City.
Although tamerlane was severely damaged in the city of Smyrna, Timur's invasion also plunged the Ottoman Empire into chaos, which gave the Knights Hospitaller a chance to breathe, and many survivors came to Bodrum to establish a new stronghold in the ancient city.
By 1404, in order to prevent the Turks from counterattacking and other more powerful enemies, the Knights Hospitaller decided to build a large castle in Bodrum, and the prototype of the castle was designed by a Germanic knight named Heinrich Schlegerholt, who was an architect before joining the Knights Hospitaller.
Flags and costumes of the Knights Hospitaller
In the Middle Ages, a lot of stone was required to build a strong castle, and it was difficult for the Knights Hospitaller to obtain a large amount of stone for the Knights Hospitaller who fled to this place. However, at this time, members of the Knights Hospitaller found a large ancient building in Bodrum, and the stone on the ruins was exactly what was needed to build the castle.
The ruins of this ancient building discovered by the Knights Hospitaller are the Mausoleum of Mosolas, known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built around 353 BC, the tomb owner, Mossolas, was a governor during the Achaemenid dynasty, who was the ruler of the peninsula of Asia Minor.
The mausoleum of Mosolas is very large, with an area of about 1,200 square meters and a height of forty-five meters, equivalent to the height of a fourteen-story building. It was not easy for the ancients more than two thousand years ago to build such a huge building, but by the twelfth century, a great earthquake had turned the Mausoleum of Mossolas into ruins.
Model of the Mausoleum of Mossolas
By the time the Knights Hospitaller entered the Bodrum region, the Mausoleum of Mossolas was in ruins, and the stone from the ruins was used to build Bodrum Castle. Perhaps the Knights Hospitaller knew that the ruins were the tomb of an ancient king, but they were not shy about it, because they were too eager to build a castle with stone to live in.
The Bodrum Castle built by the Knights Hospitaller is located near the site of the Mossolas Mausoleum, and in the successive expansions of the castle, the stone of the Mossolus Mausoleum was used, and some of the statues and funerary items in the mausoleum were also placed in Bodrum Castle as decorations by the Knights Hospitaller.
Archaeologists have believed that the Knights Hospitaller's use of the stone from the Mosolas Mausoleum to build the castle was the main reason for the complete destruction of the Mosolas Mausoleum. However, some archaeologists believe that this act of the Knights Hospitaller indirectly protected the artifacts in the Mausoleum of Mossolas, because many of the statues and columns in the Mausoleum of Mossolas were put into the castle by the Knights Hospitaller, and many of these artifacts have been preserved to this day.
The stone lion in the mausoleum of Mosolas
Since the Mausoleum of Mossolas is the tomb of an ancient nobleman, it must use many valuable funerary items, but these funerary items are still missing. By 1522, the Knights Hospitaller had received news that the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Great was going on an expedition to Bodrum Castle, and the knights once again excavated the stone from the Mausoleum of Mossolas to strengthen the castle.
It is said that during this excavation, several knights discovered the burial chamber of the Mausoleum of Mossolas, but when they took people into the burial chamber the next day to look for funerary items, they found that the entire burial chamber had been emptied.
It is not known whether the members of the Knights Hospitaller smuggled away the funerary goods in the burial chamber, or whether the local villagers had already made a quick start, but in modern times, as the archaeological team continued to excavate, archaeologists believe that the burial chamber of the Mosolas Mausoleum had been plundered by tomb robbers many times long before the Knights Hospitaller arrived here.