Turkey, Mugla

Mugla is the seat of Muğla province, which stretches along Turkey´s Aegean coast in the southwest of the country.

Geography

Muğla is about 20 km (12 mi) inland, at an altitude of 660 meters in a pot-shaped small plain surrounded by mountains, and is the administrative capital of a province that includes the popular tourist resorts of Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye.

History

In ancient times, Muğla was an insignificant settlement in the region of Caria, which was ruled from the larger coastal towns of Halicarnasoss or Knidos. Muğla was part of the Rhodian Peraea, which was subject to Rhodes but not incorporated in the Rhodian state, and bore the Carian name of Mobolla.

Turkish-era Muğla remained a minor site, as the local ruling dynasty, the Menteşe, ruled from nearby Milas. Muğla finally acquired regional importance after it replaced Milas as the seat of the subprovince (sanjak) under the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century.

A relatively small town of 20,000, and often overlooked by visitors to near-by coastal resorts, Muğla has received new life with the founding of Muğla University in the 1990s. Today, the university boasts a student community of 16,000, which has opened the city to the outside world.