Friday 11 December 2015

Bodrum Encapsulated.

There is a compact museum in the centre of town that catches the flavour of the Bodrum I fell in love with in 1982.  The Deniz Müzesi / Maritime museum honours the essence of the small seafaring village that grew out of ancient Halicarnassus and morphed into the international hangout we live in now.  Boats are celebrated and boatbuilders are given the reverence that they deserve. Bodrum was so cut off from the rest of mainland Turkey that the sea was the main highway - the "boat" was essential. In this museum, beautifully made nautical models of all different types are on display. Whether for fishing, sponge diving, transporting goods or pure pleasure, you'll find an example here.  They are so well made that I wish a cohort of tiny folk would raid the museum one moonlit night and sail these Borrower-size vessels off towards the horizon.  





The importance of the natural sponge to the local economy in the mid half of the 20th century is acknowledged and the faces and names of long-gone sponge divers are recorded for their descendants to view with pride.


Not all our divers are "long -gone',  see Bodrum's last sponge diver







The trailblazer  of Bodrum's artistic, poetic, touristic and literary future: Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, a.k.a The Fisherman of Halicarnassus is recognised with a display of some of his personal items (with more to come soon)  and his books are on sale in the museum shop.



The museum curator is Sema Sagat, who has taken the collection and concept from a temporary display in a tent outside the castle,  to this permanent site just opposite the PTT on Bodrum's main road down from the Bus Garage.  (Look out for the massive Eucalyptus trees, planted by Cevat Şakir, outside the entrance)
The building has been shut for most of 2015 for urgent restoration but is up and running now and
should be a mandatory destination on any Bodrum itinerary.



Open Tuesday to Sunday;  
November to May - 10am to 6pm.  June to October 11am to 10pm. 
Admission fee 5 TL (under 16 yrs - free. Over 65 yrs - half price) 

16 comments:

  1. We went round it in 2013 - loved it!!

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  2. Ohh, this looks really interesting. Will definitely look it up - by way of the giant trees - when we're next in Bodrum.

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    1. If you stand with your back to the PTT, you can't miss the trees and the entrance is behind the second tree.

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  3. I would love to visit that museum.

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  4. B to B, Thanks for the information and the photos. Sounds like our kind of place. Glad to see it's up and running again.

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  5. We went last year and I loved the biographies of the fishermen whose boats were displayed. It's well laid out and manages to draw you back into a time when Bodrum developed it's spirit.

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    1. Lots of familiar faces for me, which I love.

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  6. my sort of place - I'd even enter the town to visit! ;-D

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    1. As long as it's winter - I don't think we'd get you over the boundary in Summer.

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  7. Fascinating. It wasn't there in our day, or was it?

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    1. Yes , for the last 8 months that you were here.

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  8. In my bucket list, would love to make it there next year for sure - what a treasure, so glad they are open again, many thanks for the post, Ozlem xx

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  9. That;s my kind of museum. I love small, local museums with a real passion for what they are preserving and displaying.

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