Marmaris City Guide

Marmaris History

It is not certain when Marmaris was founded but in the 6th century BC the site was known as Physkos, also Latinised as Physcus. It was in a part of Caria that belonged to Rhodes and contained a magnificent harbour and a grove sacred to Leto.

According to the historian Herodotus, there had been a castle on the site since 3000 BC. The area eventually came under the control of the Persian Empire.

In 334 BC, Caria was invaded by Alexander the Great and Physkos Castle was besieged. The town’s 600 inhabitants realised that they had no chance against the invading army and burned their valuables in the castle before escaping to the hills. Aware of the strategic value of the castle, the invaders repaired the destroyed sections to house a few hundred soldiers before the main army returned home.

Ottoman period
In the later Middle Ages Marmaris formed part of the Beylik of Menteşe. Then In the mid-fifteenth century, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror conquered and united the various tribes and kingdoms of Anatolia and the Balkans, and acquired Constantinople.

The Knights of St. John, based in Rhodes, had fought the Ottoman Empire for many years and managed to withstand the onslaughts of Mehmed II too. When Süleyman the Magnificent set out to conquer Rhodes, Marmaris served as a base for the Ottoman navy; Marmaris Castle was rebuilt from scratch in 1522 to accommodate an Ottoman army garrison.

In 1798 Admiral Nelson assembled his fleet in the harbour at Marmaris before setting sail for Egypt and the Battle of the Nile which put an end to Napoleon’s ambitions in the Mediterranean.

In 1801, a British force of 120 ships under Admiral Keith and 14,000 troops under General Abercromby anchored in the bay for eight weeks, using the time to train and resupply ready their mission to end the French campaign in Egypt and Syria.

Modern times
The two Fethiye earthquakes of 1957 almost completely destroyed the city. Only the castle and the historic buildings surrounding it were left undamaged.

Renovation work on the castle started in 1979. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, it was converted into a museum with seven galleries, the largest of them used as an exhibition hall.

The courtyard is full of seasonal flowers. Built at the same time as the castle, there is also a small Ottoman caravanserai built by Süleyman’s mother Ayşe Hafsa Sultan in the bazaar.