Mylasa

Mylasa

Mylasa, ancient city, located at the present Turkish town of Milas, some forty miles to the west of Mugla, was a Carlan sanctuary joined with the neighboring religious center at Labranda. It was at one time considered the ”sanctuary of all the Carians”. Approaching the town on highway 30 from the direction of Söke, be sure not to miss the truly impressive Temple of Euromos. This is’ found a few miles past Selimiye on the left side of the roadway. This temple, now set in among the olive groves, was the center of the ancient Carian city of Euromous. The structure, remarkably well preserved, still retains some of the Corinthian capitals atop its narrow fluited columns It Is thought to have been built around the time of Hadrian, in the second century A.D. From the temple, continue down the road, out of the olive groves onto the fertile plain of Milas and the site of ancient Mylasa on the slopes of Mount Sodra Dagı, This was the birthplace and ruling center of Mausolus. King of Caria in the fourth century B.C. He later moved his capital to Halicarnassus, the present-day resort town of Bodrum on the shores of the Aegean, and built his famous Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Today in Mylasa, one con see a smaller version of the tomb sti/J standing and in an excellent state of preservation. Most of the surviving works and ruins for the visitor to see in Mylasa are from the Roman and Ottoman periods.