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PHYSICUS |
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PHYSICUS |
The Ancient Marmaris |
 Marmaris is the site of ancient
Physicus, a deme of the Rhodian Peraea, but virtually
nothing remains of this ancient city. The acropolis was
sited on a hill to the north of the present town, but
there is little to see and an excursion is hardly
worthwhile for the sake of the ruins. It is however a
delightful walk up a rocky gorge hemmed in by pine trees and cooled by a stream.It is strange that so little should remain of ancient Physicus when it was considered to be the most important of all the cities in the Peraea, the only one to be named separately, according to George Bean, and a city that enjoyed a special relationship, presumably commercial, with Lindos on Rhodes. In all likelihood the city was carried away piece-meal by ships for building projects elsewhere, or perhaps just as ballast. The accessibility of the site and the anchorage, denying it the longevity of the other less accessible sites on the Loryma Peninsula. Although very little is left from ancient times, a toy-like medieval fortress rises above the jumble of the old village. The fortress may have been built by Suleyman the Magnificent in 1522 A.D. as a base for his assault on Rhodes against the Knights of St. John. Later on, when Nelson was pursuing Napoleon and the French Fleet around the Mediterranean in 1798, he put in at Marmaris to make some repairs and give his long-suffering sailors a short respite from the hectic business of keeping up with Napoleon. Nelson thought Marmaris the best fleet anchorage in the Eastern Mediterranean and thereafter the Admiralty recommended it as: "… suited to the various purposes of airing stores, stretching rigging, repairing boats, erecting tents for carpenters, armourers and coopers, and for unloading and carrying transports and prices." |
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