And More of Bodrum: The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

I have such bad luck with my internet so I have had to split up the picture downloading. 
Sorry Guys! I did not want to do that, but I had to. thank the lack of Internet Fairies here. 

The View of the Castle with a close up from the Antique Theater

See above the Evergreen Needles there is a blackened space in the Rock? Looks like a cave-ish thing to me and I want to go!!

This is the Wall Gate I wanted to go to but we were having a hard time trying to find it... When going to places like this you have to have a guide because people are bad with direction giving here and you can not find anything. That is why I encourage My Family to come and have me be their guide because we can help better and the lack of directions is a huge pet-peeve of mine.

We saw these all over Bodrum and I found that they are Cisterns. Turkey has hundreds of them! This one is at least 2,000 years old (Built by Romans or Earlier!)

So this is a huge Olive Tree and I just can not imagine how old it is but It was Magnificent. Casually Sitting in a Front Yard.

All homes in Bodrum as supposed to be white washed. This is an old old home and wall. I had to snap a photo of it

We had to walk and walk to find the Myndos Gate, and ended up giving up so we walked down this street, looking for the Mausoleum: Thank You Dear Jesus we Found it or The Long Rock would have been pissed! HAHAHA

One of the roads we saw while looking for the Mausoleum. Very Quaint

 

I loved this home and LongRock saw it first and said... You will love this! Come here! He was right!

We went down the wrong street but look at the lovely picture we got out of it!

At Last... The Mausoleum! When Alexander the Great Conquered Halicarnassus, The Mausoleum was not effected. It was already on the Wonders of the World list. He thought it was so great he did not want to disturb it

These were along the top: The Great Battles Mausolos fought and won.

A small scale model of what the Archeologists believe it looked like, with underground canal system

Part of the Great Mausoleum

There were several mosaics and frescoes that were taken and are now in the London Gallery National Art. When the Turkish Government, in efforts to bring their Historical Articles back to Turkey, asked England's Government to send them back to Turkey where the Bodrum skies are blue year round, The Queen responded with a letter that said she had ordered the Ceiling to be painted Blue where they remain.

A Column.. St Peter's Castle, the Bodrum Castle is made with the Mausoleum. When Log Rock and I read this we thought... Dang, no wonder that castle is so huge! 

Upon rediscovering the Ruins of the Mausoleum, the Government bought the land around it where the families were living. It is in a regular neighborhood. 

Underground canal system

On the way walking back to the hotel we went in just  regular neighborhood and we found a fence that it looked like people were digging near homes. I had to look. This is what they are digging up... Freaking Awesome! I can not wait to hear what they find here. We want to live in Bodrum. It is really magical

Cooling off after a long walk all over Bodrum looking for sites: Just for me. He is such a great guy! And so dang handsome! (Back off Ladies.. This guy is mine!)

More of the Bodrum Trip with The Long Rock

So, we spent the second day on the beach and basking in the sun but the third day Erkan and I went to the Antique Theater and The Mausoleum. It was named after Mausolus The Great. A Ruler that was beloved by the people in the Region (Ancient City of Halicarnassus!) Here is a little something about him. So, a Mausoleum was built when he died and that is where the word comes from. It was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Well I wanted to see it badly and there were some other things we wanted to see but just did not have the time.

  Again... List of things I did see there:

• Bodrum Castle (Freaking Awesome!)
• Stayed in the Gümbet (Party Every night... You quiet people will want to stay not in Gümbet)
• Antique Theater
• (Looked for Lydos Gate... I understand where it is ... Now that I am not there! :( (A bit Hard to find)
• Antique Harbor
• Famous Shopping in Bodrum (no we did not get to the Turkish Carpets which are Hugely famous world wide... From Bodrum) 
• Aegean Sea every day and walks along the Aegean Sea at night
• From the distance we noticed Windmills but did not know about them until we came home but we wanted to walk to them
• Mausoleum at Halicarnassus  built by Artemisia
• Discovered there is a Monastery there want we want to go: St George Monastery... 
• Saw the Windmills from a distance but, they are very interesting. They are over 1,000 years old and were stopped being used by the 1980's
• Discovered there is an Ancient Greek Temple and we were trying to figure out how to get there. But we were So very Curious and want to go back to look for it

Now this is the beauty with Bodrum. The entire area had once a great wall surrounding it and the city was indeed great Halicarnassus. Interesting the walls are still scattered where once thrived this Ancient City. We read about the Antique Theater which are first set of Pictures. Now, the Antique theater was only discovered in the 19702s and the hillside that is rests on was completely covered. They started slowly removing the dirt and found that it was in fact a huge theater. I we saw it from the street and thought, It is like the size of an I-Max. However, sitting in the seats, it is more like the size of two! It is really big. It is very steed to climb and so It is built straight up. The other interesting not is that there are mazes under the stones where people are supposed to sit, I think so that actors can come out from different sides, and maybe for protection if needed with important people. It is so fascinating that there are all these things that we have not discovered here in Turkey yet! Wow!
The Second set of pictures were of the Mausoleum. I will write captions accordingly.
  5 days was not long enough! 
OK... Here are more pictures

Walking up to the Theater. Notice the Stone how they were cut.

Yep, Lizard. I bet his ancestors went to the Famous Greek Plays here!!!

Poor Long Rock! He was literally saying "REALLY MORE PICS?" but he was sweet about it

Long Rock is 6 feet tall and standing in the middle or part of the center stage. I wanted to show how huge this Theater is!

This is in the front of the stage, Like a huge platform. I imagine for making great speeches? I am speculating. I could hear Long Rock from the top... sometimes I could not make out what he was saying, BUT when I am next to him I can't either. My hearing is really bad

So, I was standing in this pit that was blocked off tot he public but there are corridors behind all this seating area in this Theater.

Long Rock was so good to me. He did what I asked and ran to the pit so I can snap pictures and he could see it. I thought it was cool! He was so hot but humored me... THAT is love My Readers!

Above picture I told you about the pit and corridors... Well, I put the camera through the spokes of the Metal Gate and snapped a couple of pictures.

This one was at a weird angle. I had to put my whole arm through and I wanted to see what was down there .. this it the picture I got... I thought I would post it

In the stage, behind it were these huge columns... Long rock and I were fascinated with them The stage is just huge.

Long Rock Meditating

I laugh so hard when I see this picture. I kept telling Long Rock You ARE in this Picture!!! The theater is so big you can not see you! He said No, Dena, I am in another one. HAHAHA... He is right. HAHAHA he is not in this picture at all

I wanted to show how amazing the cutting it on the big marble. I thought it was so impressive... They think This was built 800 -600 years BC...

The Columns in the back of the stage: This is a close up of some Granite and Marble. I am just amazed that the cutting is so precise

Picture of Long Rock Back Stage... I wonder what this looked like when it was all in glory?