Knidos was one of the
greatest , important , richest ancient site in past . Knidos apart from being
an important port for the traders
was also very advanced in art , architecture and science .
Eudoksos who was a famous astronom ,
architect and legislator , Doctor Euryphon ,
polygnotos and Sostratos who is the architect of one of the seven
wonders of world Light house of Alexandria was raised up and lived in Knidos .
Knidos became a legendary
site today with the statue of nude Aphrodite made by praxiteles the sculptor
in the 4th century B.C however having many copies of the statue original one is
not found. The importance of the statue is based on the first naked depiction
of aphrodite.
Praksitales took two
orders from kos island to make 2 aphrodite
scultptors. Untill proxitales make a
naked statue of aphrodite, the deities were depicted as covered with a clothe. One
of the statues praxitales made was totally naked depicted. Kos island declined this naked statue as it is symbolyzing
too much obscenity . However the folks of Knidos love this statue and statue
was put the highest part of the Knidos which can be seen by the visitors from
aegean and mediterranean sea.
The fame of naked Knidos aphrodite statue had
increased in time even being a better financial income than trading. Thousands
of visitor came to Knidos just to see this unique statue. Aphrodite statue
became a kind of cult.
Bithnya king Nicomedos
offered to knidos government to erase their debts by giving the statue to
Bithynia kingdom . Upon this offer Knidos made a referendum to find out what people think about the offer. Eventually
locals didn`t accept the offer . It was believed that statue was dissapeared in
a fire occured in Lausos palace after the byzantium emperor Theodosius ordered
to take the statue to palace.
The city walls of Knidos
covers an area of 4 km. 2 amphitheatres are built with the capacity of 20.000 and
5.000 people are available.
Many remnants are
available in the Knidos to see today.
Acropolis , Odeon , corinthian temple and ionion busts are the some
remnants worth to see in Knidos.
How to reach Knidos ;
You can either go Knidos by a boat
available from Datca once in a day or by your car. There is one restaurant
available in the Knidos .