| | | Knidos (Cnidus)
Knidos (Cnidus) (Turkey)
| | | | Knidos or Cnidus(Greek : Κνίδος) was an ancient Greek city of Caria, part of the Dorian Hexapolis. It was situated on the Datça peninsula, which forms the southern side of the Sinus Ceramicus, now known as Gulf of Gökova. | | Knidos (Cnidus) : Virtual tour |  | 17 sections and 2 items |
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Knidos (Cnidus) : Building(s) (14)
|  | Corinthian temple
approx. between 150 and 200
This temple is situated on a easily visible terrace upon the harbors. It stands on an high podium with four columns in the pronaos and two in the opisthodomos.
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|  | Round Temple and Altar
IInd century
The foundations and podium of the round temple (tholos) are made of gray marble, while the superstructure is made of soft porous stone. Its stepped entrance is to the east, facing the altar.
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|  | Stoa
To the north of the recent excavations have revealed a row of room belonging to a stoa in an east-west direction in front of some terrace walls. The stoa was constructed in the 3rd century BC, using a variety of materials.
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|  | Sun-dial
Different types of clock were used in antiquity to tell the time. These were often placed in prominent spots in he city. The Knidos sun-dial is of the standard type and belongs to the Hellenistic Period.
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|  | Temple of Aphrodite
Knidos is renowned for its wine, vinegar and above all for Praxiteles' statue of Aphrodite. The statue has long since disappeared, but the elegantly proportioned podium of the round temple in which it stood was discovered twenty-five years ago.
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|  | Temple of Apollo and Altar
approx. between 160 and 140 B.C.
The altar structure is made of gray marble. According to the inscribed blocks, the altar was dedicated to Apollo Karneios and made by a certain Zenodotus, together with Theo of Antioch, in the middle of the 2nd century BC.
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|  | Temple of Dionysus (Church C)
The temple, immediately to the west of the theater, is to be associated with Dionysus, the god of wine and entertainment. Parts of the frieze depict scenes that relate to Dionysus, while the style of theses elements allows the building to be dated to the late Hellenistic period.
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|  | Theater of Knidos
One theater is situated in the north sector of the upper city, while the other is immediately to the north of the large harbor.
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Knidos (Cnidus) : Place(s) (2)
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| | Knidos (Cnidus) : Description | |
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By the fourth century BC, Knidos was located at the site of modern Tekir, opposite Triopion Island. But earlier, it was probably at the site of modern Datça (at the half-way point of the peninsula).
It was built partly on the mainland and partly on the Island of Triopion or Cape Krio. The debate about it being an island or cape is caused by the fact that in ancient times it was connected to the mainland by a causeway and bridge. Today the connection is formed by a narrow sandy isthmus. By means of the causeway the channel between island and mainland was formed into two harbours, of which the larger, or southern, was further enclosed by two strongly-built moles that are still in good part entire.
The extreme length of the city was little less than a mile, and the whole intramural area is still thickly strewn with architectural remains. The walls, both of the island and on the mainland, can be traced throughout their whole circuit; and in many places, especially round the acropolis, at the northeast corner of the city, they are remarkably perfect. The first Western knowledge of the site was due to the mission of the Dilettante Society in 1812, and the excavations executed by C. T. Newton in 1857-1858.
The agora, the theatre, an odeum, a temple of Dionysus, a temple of the Muses, a temple of Aphrodite and a great number of minor buildings have been identified, and the general plan of the city has been very clearly made out. The most famous statue by Praxiteles, the Aphrodite of Knidos, was made for Cnidus. It has perished, but late copies exist, of which the most faithful is in the Vatican Museums.
In a temple enclosure Newton discovered a fine seated statue of Demeter, which he sent back to the British Museum, and about three miles south-east of the city he came upon the ruins of a splendid tomb, and a colossal figure of a lion carved out of one block of Pentelic marble, ten feet in length and six in height, which has been supposed to commemorate the great naval victory, the Battle of Cnidus in which Conon defeated the Lacedaemonians in 394 BC.
Knidos was a city of high antiquity and as a Hellenic city probably of Lacedaemonian colonization. Along with Halicarnassus (present day Bodrum, Turkey) and Kos, and the Rhodian cities of Lindos, Kamiros and Ialyssos it formed the Dorian Hexapolis, which held its confederate assemblies on the Triopian headland, and there celebrated games in honour of Apollo, Poseidon and the nymphs.
The city was at first governed by an oligarchic senate, composed of sixty members, and presided over by a magistrate; but, though it is proved by inscriptions that the old names continued to a very late period, the constitution underwent a popular transformation. The situation of the city was favourable for commerce, and the Knidians acquired considerable wealth, and were able to colonize the island of Lipara, and founded a city on Corcyra Nigra in the Adriatic. They ultimately submitted to Cyrus, and from the battle of Eurymedon to the latter part of the Peloponnesian War they were subject to Athens.
In their expansion into the region, the Romans easily obtained the allegiance of Knidians, and rewarded them for help given against Antiochus by leaving them the freedom of their city.
During the Byzantine period there must still have been a considerable population: for the ruins contain a large number of buildings belonging to the Byzantine style, and Christian sepulchres are common in the neighbourhood.
Eudoxus, the astronomer, Ctesias, the writer on Persian history, and Sostratus, the builder of the celebrated Pharos at Alexandria, are the most remarkable of the Knidians mentioned in history.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knidos
Text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License | | Knidos (Cnidus) : History | |
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Cnide (ou Knidos) est une ville grecque de l'Asie mineure située au nord de l'île de Rhodes, sur les côtes de Carie (actuelle Turquie). La fondation de Cnide, au VIIème siècle avant Jésus-Christ, est attribuée Grecs doriens. La cité devint rapidement un port très actif, en raison de son emplacement qui favorisait le commerce avec les îles de la Méditerranée, l'Egypte et l'Afrique.
C'est à Cnide qu'ouvre en 700 avant notre ère la première école de médecine en Grèce antique.
Afin de protéger leur cité, les Cnidiens eurent l'idée d'isoler la péninsule de Datça du continent en creusant un fossé à l'endroit le plus étroit, sur une distance inférieure à un kilomètre. L'oracle s'y opposa, arguant que Zeus l'aurait fait si l'idée lui semblait bonne.
Cnide, soumise à la domination perse vers 545 avant Jésus-Christ, participa à ses cotés à la bataille de Salamine (480 avant Jésus-Christ).
La cité rejoint la ligue de Délos après la défaite perse du cap Mycale en 479 avant Jésus-Christ, puis se révolte contre la domination athénienne en 412 avant Jésus-Christ. Ville encore relativement importante sous l'empire romain, elle possède le statut de ville libre. Cnide, ensuite annexée par la Cilicie, ancienne province romaine située dans la moitié orientale du sud de la Turquie, amorcera son déclin. La période byzantine marquera un répit, comme en témoignent les vestiges des nombreuses églises. Les invasions arabes scelleront la chute définitive du port. La cité sera totalement abandonnée au début du XXème siècle. | | Knidos (Cnidus) : More pictures | |
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