Deveboynuburnu, Datça - Muğla - Turkey
GPS : 36°41'12.2"N 27°21'49.1"E / 36.686729, 27.363626
It was constructed in Knidos region of Datça. Deveboynu Burnu (Camels' Neck Point) is the farmost point of Anatolia towards the Mediterranean Sea is also the border between the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas at the tip of the long and narrow Datça peninsula. Its name "Deveboynu" (Camel’s Neck) was given to the fact that its geographical situation represents the form of a camel neck.
Knidos or Cnidus was an ancient Greek city of Caria and part of the Dorian Hexapolis, in south-western Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. It was situated on the Datça peninsula, which forms the southern side of the Sinus Ceramicus, now known as Gulf of Gökova. By the 4th century BC, Knidos was located at the site of modern Tekir, opposite Triopion Island. But earlier, it was probably at the site of modern Datça (at the half-way point of the peninsula).
It was built partly on the mainland and partly on the Island of Triopion or Cape Krio. The debate about it being an island or cape is caused by the fact that in ancient times it was connected to the mainland by a causeway and bridge. Today the connection is formed by a narrow sandy isthmus. By means of the causeway the channel between island and mainland was formed into two harbours, of which the larger, or southern, was further enclosed by two strongly built moles that are still in good part entire.
The extreme length of the city was little less than a mile, and the whole intramural area is still thickly strewn with architectural remains. The walls, both of the island and on the mainland, can be traced throughout their whole circuit; and in many places, especially round the acropolis, at the northeast corner of the city, they are remarkably perfect.
Accessible by a hike of about 1 km (0.6 mi) from the end of the road. Site and tower opened to public visits.
Construction Date : 01.01.1931
Location : It was constructed in Knidos region of Datça in 1931. This location of situation which is the farmost point of Anatolia towards the Mediterranean Sea is also the border between the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Its name "Deveboynu" (Camel’s Neck) was given to the fact that its geographical situation represents the form of a camel neck. Accessible by a hike of about 1 km (0.6 mi) from the end of the road.
Building : Round cylindrical masonry tower with lantern and gallery, attached to a 1-story masonry keeper's house. Entire lighthouse painted white. Lighthouse and guardian house is being under protection as national heritage by General Directorate of Coastal Safety and Salvage Administrations.
Focal Plane : 104 mt (341 ft)
Tower Height : 9 mt (30 ft)
Character : W.FI.(2) 10.0 Second
Flashing Character : 0.5 + 2.0 + 0.5 + 7.0
Visibility Range : 12 nautical miles
Illuminate Type : TIDELAND TRB 300 mm
Lighthouse System : Devvar
Flasher Type : TIDELAND TF -3B
Electric Lamp : 35 Watt
Bulb Type : 12 Volt Halogen
Energy : Sun Battery
Light : Oil lamp has primarily been used and then high intense filament lamps work with LPCo as a light source and it is currently provided an illumination with the electric lamp of 35 W by solar powered. In order to be seen from the long distance by strengthen the light source, three pieces cotodiyoptric cylinder lenses which has optical distance of 375 mm as a optic system had been used.
Quadrangle optical panels had placed on circular platform which float on bath of mercury. Fixed light source illuminates on focus and when the optic is rotated on the platform it will give out four flashes during the period of rotation. Clockwork mechanism and optical panels has been under protection in Istanbul. Nowadays it is operated with electrical flash lantern 300 mm.
Knidos Excavation Area
Knidos was a Hellenic city of high antiquity. According to Herodotus' Histories (I.174), the Cnidians were Lacedaemonian colonists; however, the presence of demiurges there argues for foundation or later influence by other Doric Greeks, possibly Argives. Diodorus Siculus claimed that Cnidus was founded by both Lacedaemonians and Argives. Along with Halicarnassus (present day Bodrum, Turkey) and Kos, and the Rhodian cities of Lindos, Kamiros and Ialyssos it formed the Dorian Hexapolis, which held its confederate assemblies on the Triopian headland, and there celebrated games in honour of Apollo, Poseidon and the nymphs.
The city was at first governed by an oligarchic senate, composed of sixty members, and presided over by a magistrate; but, though it is proved by inscriptions that the old names continued to a very late period, the constitution underwent a popular transformation. The situation of the city was favourable for commerce, and the Knidians acquired considerable wealth, and were able to colonize the island of Lipara, and founded a city on Corcyra Nigra in the Adriatic. They ultimately submitted to Cyrus, and from the battle of Eurymedon to the latter part of the Peloponnesian War they were subject to Athens. During the hellenistic age, Knidos boasted a medical school; however, the theory that this school already existed at the beginning of the classical age is an unwarranted extrapolation.
In their expansion into the region, the Romans easily obtained the allegiance of Knidians, and rewarded them for help given against Antiochus III the Great by leaving them the freedom of their city. During the Byzantine period there must still have been a considerable population: for the ruins contain a large number of buildings belonging to the Byzantine style, and Christian sepulchres are common in the neighbourhood.
Eudoxus, the astronomer, Ctesias, the writer on Persian history, and Sostratus, the builder of the celebrated Pharos at Alexandria, are the most remarkable of the Knidians mentioned in history. Artemidorus, a minor character in the Shakespeare play “Julius Caesar”, was also from Knidos.
Bishop Ioannes of Cnidus took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and was one of the signatories of the letter that in 458 the bishops of the Roman province of Caria, to which Cnidus belonged, wrote to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian after the murder of Proterius of Alexandria. Bishop Evander was at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 and Bishop Stauratius at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. No longer a residential bishopric, Cnidus is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.
Excavation history
British archaeologist Charles Newton, in 1857 he wrote the diary while Knidos excavation: "... a monumental tomb, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus be proud of, a monumental bronze sculptures cast from Rhodes Helios, if any; Knidsos small town in the same way there is a statue of Aphrodite can be proud of. He is the statue; Bithynia (north of the Aegean Region) King Nicomedes, revealed the city's entire income in return, Knidos was clear all debt, but in vain ... "
Sculptor Praxiteles today could not be found naked statue of Aphrodite of Knidos, though his base to be seen. The first Western knowledge of the site was due to the mission of the Dilettante Society in 1812, and the excavations executed by C. T. Newton in 1857–1858.
The Classical site of Cnidus had been the subject of multiple British archaeological projects in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, before Ian Jenkins relocated the ‘Sanctuary of the Muses’ in 1997, which now took the form of a goat pen and herdsman’s hut, this part of the ancient city had not been visited for over a century. In conjunction with R. Ögan, the director of the Cnidos excavation, Ian Jenkins initiated a project to better understand the context of the many finds recovered there (now housed in the British Museum).
In 1999, there was a preliminary photographic survey to prepare for an excavation, at which point it was photographed and prepared for future work. In 2000 work was continued on the sanctuary. Publications from Newton’s survey in the 1850s were informative, and showed that some of the masonry found by him had been smashed in the construction of the goat pen, though his site plan differed in detail from what the new team found, and a corrected plan was undertaken. The sanctuary had originally been built near a spring of fresh water, and displayed evidence of terracotta pipes.
In the third season, in 2001, the top of a Classical foundation was partially excavated below where a modern wall had been constructed. A space believed to be a baptistery (filled by the spring) was also found. A new area was explored to the south of the courtyard with the aim of finding the entrance and establishing the level of the Classical pavement. Finds included a glass game piece, a partial inscription, and a bone comb. At the season’s close, the sanctuary was tentatively re-dated to the late fourth or early third century BC. The Sanctuary of Demeter, another nearby site, was also visited and planned.
In 2002 excavations continued, focusing primarily on the sanctuary’s stylobate, courtyard, courtyard wall, and some nearby streets. In the middle of the courtyard a cistern shaft was found and excavated nearly 6.5 m downwards. The fourth season’s work was helpful for clarifying the sanctuary’s layout and date. Some of the finds, as well as its location itself – near a spring and grottoes – pointed towards Nymph worship, rather than the Muses.
In 2003, the fifth season of work allowed an accurate site plan to be established, and the sanctuary (now better classified as a Nymphaeum) was dated and put into the context of Newton’s British Museum finds. The statuettes found by Newton were nude, which also fit better as nymphs, and some marble relief fragments showed nymphs dancing with Pan. The pottery pointed to construction sometime around 300BC. It continued to function into the Roman period, though it may have fallen into disuse during late Pagan and early Christian times. The later pottery is indicative of the transformation of the sanctuary into a church at the end of the fifth century AD. It may have been used for a few centuries before being abandoned. Two structures were found unexpectedly, known as the “Gymnasium” and “Roman building”.
In 2004 attention was focused on the east side of the site and on part of the ancient high street of town. The original street entrance was found in the course of clearing the area, and a well-preserved mosaic pavement was found. A complex called the gymnasium by Newton was also investigated, though its function remained unclear. Researchers from the University of Konya conducted their own excavations, centring on the harbour terrace.
Ill health prevented Jenkins from continuing the excavation in Turkey in 2005, and so work instead was carried out in the British Museum. An inscription from the so-called gymnasium was studied, and found to record information about a notable citizen, probably the famous Cnidian Artemidoros, who allegedly attempted to warn Caesar of the plot against this life.
Excavation was resumed in the so-called gymnasium and harbour terrace between 21 August and 10 September 2006. The ‘gymnasium’ yielded three terraces, with three rooms and a possible veranda. One of the mosaics can be dated sometime before 250BC. Steps were cleared from the street in the corner of the terrace, revealing a second entrance and uncovering a cistern.
Knidos sundial
The agora, the theatre, an odeum, a temple of Dionysus, a temple of the Muses, a temple of Aphrodite and a great number of minor buildings have been identified, and the general plan of the city has been very clearly made out. The most famous statue by Praxiteles, the Aphrodite of Knidos, was made for Cnidus. It has perished, but late copies exist, of which the most faithful is in the Vatican Museums.
Gold vase found off the sea near Knidos dating to 25BC- 50AD now in the British Museum.
Lion of Knidos on display in the British Museum, London
In a temple enclosure Newton discovered the fine seated statue of Demeter of Knidos, which he sent back to the British Museum, and about three miles south-east of the city he came upon the ruins of a splendid tomb, and a colossal figure of a lion carved out of one block of Pentelic marble, ten feet in length and six in height, which has been supposed to commemorate the great naval victory, the Battle of Cnidus in which Conon defeated the Lacedaemonians in 394 BC. The Knidos Lion is now displayed under the roof of the Great Court in the British Museum.
LOCATION SATELLITE MAP
These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2018, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.
