Knidos

Knidos, or Cnidus, is an ancient Greek city which is now located on Turkey's Datca peninsula, near the popular tourist spot of Tekir. From the 6th century BC onwards it became a vital strategic military and trading post at the edge of the Mediterranean, thanks to its vantage point at the summit of a cliff directly overlooking the sea. The city was already a prominent place by the time the Athenian general Conon defeated the belligerent Spartan fleet at the Battle of Cnidus in 394 BC, and it soon had an odeon, temples and was the focal point for a Venus sex cult. However the city is most famed for its illustrious marbles, most notably Praxiteles' statue of Aphrodite, now lost yet recreated in the British Museum, and the famous Lion of Knidos which now takes pride of place in the BM's Great Hall.

Knidos remained a strategic stronghold throughout the ancient Greek empire, yet switched allegiance to the Romans upon their defeat of Antiochus I Soter. It later became a Byzantine highlight, characterised by a large number of dwellings from the time. It became a point of western interest via the Dilettante Society of 1812, and was first excavated under C. T. Newton in 1857-58.

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