Caria
Caria covered the mountainous southwest, from the Maeander valley to the Bodrum peninsula. Its people spoke Carian, an Anatolian language recorded in inscriptions and in Egyptian mercenary graffiti. The Hecatomnid dynasty in the 4th century BCE made Halicarnassus a major capital; Mausolus and Artemisia built the Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders, and hired the finest Greek sculptors. Labraunda was the dynasty's sanctuary of Zeus Labraundos, reached by a ceremonial road; Knidos, at the tip of the Datça peninsula, was famous for Praxiteles' Aphrodite and for its harbour and observatory. Stratonikeia and Euromos preserve later Carian-Roman cities. Caria is a good example of how Anatolian, Greek and Persian traditions overlapped rather than replaced one another.
Where to see it
Related civilizations
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