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Photo: Jona Lendering, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
Mausolos was satrap (regional governor) here for 18 years. Before his death in 353 BC, he commissioned a tomb for himself so grand that it was accounted one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and "mausoleum" became the term for any above-ground tomb. It was 45 m high and richly decorated. His wife Artemisia ruled for another two years then was interred with him the not-quite-finished tomb; in legend she was made into an icon of grieving widowhood, supposedly mixing his ashes into her drink (These legends seldom pointed out that she was his sister). Earthquakes shook the tomb to bits by 1494 AD, or at least that's what folk said when its masonry and decorations somehow ended up in their own mansions (Several prize pieces even shook themselves into the British Museum). Today you explore the foundations, and there are exhibits and a video presentation.
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus was a tomb built between 353 and 351 BC in Halicarnassus for Mausolus, an Anatolian from Caria and a satrap in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and his sister-wife Artemisia II. The structure was designed by the Greek architects Satyros of Paros and Pythius of Priene. Its elevated tomb structure is derived from the tombs of neighbouring Lycia, a territory Mausolus had invaded and annexed c. 360 BC, such as the Nereid Monument.
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Antik Tiyatrosu
This was begun by Mausolos in the 4th century BC, but took its present form under the Romans in the 2nd century AD. It was restored in the 1970s and 90s into an event space with seating for 10,000.
Well-preserved bastion built from 1402 by the Knights Hospitaller, who called it the Castle of St Peter. Its towers are called the English, French, German and Italian for the four nations constructing them, a clue as to why this took most of a century; the Pope guaranteed its builders a place in heaven but failed to set a deadline. It withstood attacks by the Ottomans but fell to them in 1523. They converted the chapel to a mosque but didn't have much use for the castle, which was variously a garrison, a prison, or unoccupied. Since 1962 it's housed the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, displaying remarkable finds from local shipwrecks. The standout is the Uluburun wreck from the 14th century BC, late Bronze Age, laden with copper ingots, a rare insight into trade and travel in that era.
Zeki Müren Sanat Müzesi
Zeki Müren (1931-96) was a prolific, flamboyant and frankly camp singer-songwriter. He was born in Bursa, launched his career in Istanbul and retired to Bodrum when his health failed. His house has been made into a museum with memorabilia such as his costumes. He had rather a lot of costumes.
A park with 23 waterslides, a 350-m wave river, a wave pool, a range of other pools, and a disco. Food is overpriced and they search you to keep it that way.
This is the closest golf course to Bodrum. There are others to the northeast at Regnum Resort and at Vita Park.