Cnidus or Cnidos, city of Caria, an ancient country in Asia Minor, located on the Aegean Sea, in what is now southwestern Turkey. The city was built partly on Cape Krio, the peninsula that extends between the islands of Kos and Rhodes, and partly on Triopion Island. A bridge and a causeway connected both parts of the town, which were walled and had a total length of about 2 km (about 1 mi). Cnidus was founded by the Spartans and became an important commercial center. It was reputed to have been favored by the goddess Aphrodite, and a statue of her by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles was placed in her temple in the city. At Cnidus in 394 bc, the Athenian admiral Conon defeated a Spartan fleet and broke the power of Sparta in Asia Minor.

Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2003.©1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation.All rights reserved.

Knidos Theater

No Greek city worth its salt was without a theater and Knidos was no exception. But the theater is also not the least of the remains found here, which include myriad temples scattered around the hillsides overlooking the Aegean Sea. But for us, the remains were not near so interesting as the journey we undertook to get here or as the sheer beauty of the site itself with its double harbor, hillsides running straight down into the sea, and views for ever more.

This is the view out to the Aegean from part of the ancient city wall. While we were there we saw a sailboat approach from up the coast at Bodrum, turn around the tip of the peninsula and immediately become becalmed. Eventually the boat came into the inner harbor under motor power and we laughed to ourselves and wondered if the ancient inhabitants profited by this strange wind effect to bring unsuspecting sailors into port and make a few drachmas off them. Perhaps we are ill-educated, but we had never heard of Knidos before our visit and so were surprised once back in England and the U.S.to find several references to it, one of them to "Demeter of Cnidos" in an English novel written in 1931.

View of the Aegean from Knidos

Getting to Knidos

Our small hotel in Datça was only a couple of blocks from the bus station so it seemed natural that we would go there first when trying to catch a bus to Knidos. It was about nine a.m. and we were happy to find a friendly dolmus driver who spoke English, though not so happy when we found out that there was no bus to Knidos. The closest one could get by bus to Knidos was a small village some seven or eight (?) kilometers from Knidos. "OK", says we, "where do we catch that bus?" "Right here", says he. But then came the Catch 22. The bus didn't leave until noon, and didn't get to its destination until after the return bus had left.

We conferred and decided that taking a bus was not such a good idea and that we would do better trying to hitchhike. Can you imagine? Grey-haired hitchhikers! The first part of the journey was easy. We picked up a dolmus that took us out the five kilometers to the Knidos road. From there we started walking. It was a warm sunny day, not too hot, perfect weather for walking in fact. We walked past the cutoff road to the north shore of the peninsula that we had walked to the previous day and for about an hour stretched our legs and enjoyed the spring sunshine.

There was very little traffic and we weren't really very optimistic about getting a lift. We had pretty much decided that the day was to be similar to the day before. A nice long hike along quiet country road. Nonetheless, we dutifully stuck out our hands at the approach of any vehicle. And lo and behold a big lumbering lorry stopped and picked us up. The driver was close to us in age, of a very sunny disposition, and seemingly delighted to have found two foreigners on his path. He spoke no English but did speak a few words of German and so we managed to convey the fact that we were going to Knidos. He indicated he would drop us off somewhere before Knidos, though we couldn't figure out where. We were happy to be sitting in his noisy cab, high off the road, with great views from the road that followed the mountainous spine of the peninsula.

After about 18 kilometers, our driver indicated that he would have to turn off and so he warmly embraced the both of us and watched smiling as we climbed down and waved him off. The road was completely deserted but we had views for miles. We watched our friendly truck as it wound off the main road down towards the ocean and then stepped out again on our journey.

The number of cars that passed us could be counted on the fingers of one hand, or even half a hand in an hour. The first couple showed no inclination to stop, but miracle of miracles, the third did. It was a family saloon carrying a 40-something couple and their elderly father. They opened the trunk for our daypacks, settled us in next to father and off we went. They were headed for the last village before Knidos, the bus destination. It was less than a 20-minute drive. They dropped off father and then drove us to the far outskirts of the village to be sure we would get on the right road and said goodbye.

By now we were convinced we were going to make it to Knidos. Even at a snail's pace We could walk the 8 kilometers in two hours, giving us three hours before the expected closing time of 5 p.m. We had no idea how or whether we would get back, but we had brought toothbrushes along, just in case. Given the way that traffic had dropped off as we got further and further away from Datça, we had little hope of getting a lift for the last segment, but would you believe that the first car that passed stopped. Actually, to call it a car is a bit of a misnomer. It was a jalopy and was occupied by two very shifty looking characters. But they were willing to carry us, especially when we politely offered to pay. Our other two rides had just as politely refused our money, but these two obviously found the money an incentive. We negotiated an acceptable price and off we went. En route, Jan had a few second thoughts. What if these shifty charcters decided we were a better source of money dead than alive. Here we were in the middle of nowhere, and pretty vulnerable. But her fears were baseless and in only fifteen minutes or so we found ourselves on a narrow dirt road winding downhill towards the anicent city of Knidos. We had made it in only four hours from Datça. We happily paid our entry fee and climbed up to the old city wall above the military harbor and ate a picnic lunch.

Coming back was much easier. While walking around the site, we met a woman wearing a Middletown NJ T-shirt. She and her husband were Dutch. Her brother had worked for AT&T in Middletown. They had rented a car to come to Knidos from Marmaris and drove us all the way back to the point where our morning dolmus had dropped us off. There we picked up another dolmus back to our hotel. A very satisfying day.

WebLinks

http://www.kusadasi.com/knidos.html