Muğla Province

Muğla Province (Turkish: Muğla ili, pronounced [muːɫa iˈli]) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey, at the country's south-western corner, on the Aegean Sea. Its area is 12,654 km2,[2] and its population is 1,048,185 (2022).[1] Its seat is Muğla, about 20 km (12 mi) inland, while some of Turkey's largest holiday resorts, such as Bodrum, Ölüdeniz, Marmaris and Fethiye, are on the coast in Muğla.

This article is about the province of Turkey. For the city in Turkey, see Muğla.
Muğla Province
Mugla ili
Province and metropolitan municipality
Clockwise from top: Aerial view of Mugla, Marmaris Marina, Halicarnassus Theatre, Butterfly Valley, Bodrum Castle, Amyntas Rock Tombs, Ölüdeniz Beach
Official logo of Muğla Province
Logo
Location of the province within Turkey
Location of the province within Turkey
CountryTurkey
SeatMuğla
Government
 • MayorOsman Gürün (CHP)
 • Valiİdris Akbıyık
Area
12,654 km2 (4,886 sq mi)
Population
 (2022)[1]
1,048,185
 • Density83/km2 (210/sq mi)
Time zoneTRT (UTC+3)
Area code0252
Websitewww.mugla.bel.tr
www.mugla.gov.tr

Etymology

The original name of Muğla is open to debate. Various sources refer to the city as Mogola, Mobella or Mobolia.

Geography

At 1,100 km (680 mi), Muğla's coastline is the longest among the Provinces of Turkey and longer than many countries' coastlines, (even without taking any small islands into account). Important is the Datça Peninsula. As well as the sea, Muğla has two large lakes, Lake Bafa in the district of Milas and Lake Köyceğiz. The landscape consists of pot-shaped small plains surrounded by mountains, formed by depressions in the Neogene. These include the plain of the city of Muğla itself, Yeşilyurt, Ula, Gülağzı, Yerkesik, Akkaya, Çamköy and Yenice). Until the recent building of highways, transport from these plains to either the coast or inland was quite arduous, and thus each locality remained an isolated culture of its own. Contact with the outside world was through one of the three difficult passes: northwest to Milas, north to the Menderes plain through Gökbel, or northeast to Tavas.

The economy of Muğla relies mainly on tourism (on the coast), and agriculture, forestry and marble quarries inland.

Agriculture in Muğla is rich and varied; the province is one of Turkey's largest producers of honey, pine-forest honey in particular and citrus fruits are grown in Ortaca, Fethiye, Dalaman and Dalyan.

The province is the second center of marble industry in Turkey after Afyonkarahisar in terms of quantity, variety and quality. Other mineral exploitation includes coal-mining in Yatağan and chrome in Fethiye. Other industry in the province includes the SEKA paper mill in Dalaman, However Muğla is by no means an industrialised province.

Environment

Despite court decisions upheld by the ECHR,[3] as of 2020, Yatağan, Yeniköy and Kemerköy coal-fired power stations continue to pollute.[4]

Transportation
Yalikavak Marina

The following are aspects about transportation in Muğla province:

History

In ancient times in Anatolia, the region between the Menderes (Meander) and Dalaman (Indus) rivers in the south was called Caria. The inhabitants were Carians and Leleges. In his Iliad, Homer describes the Carians as natives of Anatolia, defending their country against Greeks in joint campaigns in collaboration with the Trojans.

A major city of ancient Caria, Muğla is known to have been occupied by raiding parties of Egyptians, Assyrians and Scythians, until eventually the area was settled by Ancient Greek colonists. The Greeks inhabited this coast for a long time building prominent cities, such as Knidos (at the end of the Datça Peninsula) and Bodrum (Halicarnassos), as well as many smaller towns along the coast, on the Bodrum Peninsula and inland, including in the district of Fethiye the cities of Telmessos, Xanthos, Patara and Tlos. Eventually the coast was conquered by Persians who were in turn removed by Alexander the Great, bringing an end to the satrapy of Caria.

In 1261, Menteshe Bey, founder of the Beylik (principality) that carried his name, with its capital in Milas and nearby Beçin, established his rule over the region of Muğla as well. The beys of Menteshe held the city until 1390 and this, the first Turkish state in the region, achieved a high level of cultural development, its buildings remaining to this day. The province also became a significant naval power, trading with the Aegean Islands, Crete and as far as Venice and Egypt. Turkish settlement during the Menteshe period usually took place through migrations along the Kütahya-Tavas axis.

In 1390, Muğla was taken over by the Ottoman Empire. However, just twelve years later, Tamerlane and his forces defeated the Ottomans in the Battle of Ankara, and returned control of the region to its former rulers, the Menteshe Beys, as he did for other Anatolian beyliks. Muğla was brought back under Ottoman control by Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, in 1451. One of the most important events in the area during the Ottoman period was the well-recorded campaign of Suleiman the Magnificent against Rhodes, which was launched from Marmaris.

Archaeology

With this long history Muğla is rich in ancient ruins, with over 100 excavated sites including the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Letoon, near Fethiye.

In 2018, archaeologists unearthed a 2,300-year-old rock sepulchre of an ancient Greek boxer called Diagoras of Rhodes on a hill in the Turgut village, Muğla province, Marmaris. This unusual pyramid tomb was considered to belong to a holy person by the local people. The shrine, used as a pilgrimage by locals until the 1970s, also has the potential to be the only pyramid grave in Turkey. Excavation team also discovered an inscription with these words: “I will be vigilant at the very top so as to ensure that no coward can come and destroy this grave".[5][6][7][8][9][10]

In July 2021, archaeologists led by Abuzer Kızıl have announced the discovery of two 2,500-year-old marble statues and an inscription during excavations at the Temple of Zeus Lepsynos in Euromus. According to Abuzer Kızıl, one of the statues was naked while other was wearing armor made of leather and a short skirt. Both of the statues were depicted with a lion in their hands.[11][12][13]

Notable people

The following are notable residents of Muğla province:

Districts

Politics

The Republican People's Party (CHP), Turkey's principal center-left party has a traditionally strong presence across the political landscape of Muğla Province, closely followed by the traditional center-right represented by the Democrat Party (DP) in Turkey's politics, although the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP) obtained the first place in the ballots cast during the last national-scale elections that were the 2004 local elections, with 31,25% of the votes. The overall percentage for the province was 26,3% for the CHP, and 20,98% for the DP during the same elections. The rightist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), campaigning on Turkish nationalism had obtained a further 9,5% (especially in the Fethiye district). The other parties registered less significant percentages.

References
  1. "Address-based population registration system (ADNKS) results dated 31 December 2022, Favorite Reports" (XLS). TÜİK. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  2. "İl ve İlçe Yüz ölçümleri". General Directorate of Mapping. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  3. "CASE OF OKYAY AND OTHERS v. TURKEY" (PDF).
  4. Başkanı, M. M. O.; ki, Termik Santraller İle İlgili Bir Basın Açıklaması Yaptı-Kararara Haber – Güncel Hukuk Haberleri dedi (2020-01-24). "MMO Başkanı, Termik Santraller İle İlgili Bir Basın Açıklaması Yaptı". Enerji Portalı (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  5. Smith, John. "Turkey 'Shrine' Turns Out to be Tomb of Ancient Greek Boxer | Greek Reporter Europe". Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  6. "Yıllarca türbe sanıldı; mozole çıktı". www.trthaber.com. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  7. "Shrine in Turkey uncovered as tomb of ancient Greek boxer | Neos Kosmos". English Edition. 2018-05-22. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  8. TM. "Previous holy site in Turkey's Marmaris revealed to be tomb of Greek boxer - Turkish Minute". Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  9. Team, G. C. T. (23 May 2018). "2,300 year old shrine in Turkey turns out to be tomb of ancient Greek Boxer Diagoras". Greek City Times. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  10. "Aegean villagers mistook Greek boxer's tomb for Islamic holy site, archaeologists discover". Ahval. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  11. "2,500-year-old statues, inscription unearthed in western Turkey". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
  12. "2,500-year-old statues, inscription unearthed in western Turkey". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
  13. Gershon, Livia. "Archaeologists in Turkey Unearth 2,500-Year-Old Temple of Aphrodite". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
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