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Muğla Province Muğla ili
—  Province of Turkey  —
Location of Muğla Province in Turkey
Country	Turkey
Region	Aegean
Capital	Muğla
Government
• Governor	Ahmet Altıparmak
Area
• Total	13,338 km2 (5,150 sq mi)
Population (2010-12-31)[1]
• Total	817,503
• Density	61/km2 (160/sq mi)
Area code(s)	0252
Vehicle registration	48
Website	muğla.gov.tr

Muğla Province (Turkish: Muğla ili) is a province of Turkey, at the country's south-western corner, on the Aegean Sea. 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.

Etymology[link]

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

Geography[link]

At 1,100 km (680 mi), Muğla's coastline is the longest among the Provinces of Turkey and longer than many countries' costlines, (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.

Coast in Muğla province (near Dalaman).

Typical Muğla coastal scene.

Typical Muğla inland landscape.

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 and the power stations at Yatağan, Yeniköy and Kemerköy. However Muğla is by no means an industrialised province.

Transportation[link]

The following are aspects about transportation in Muğla province:

• There are two airports in Dalaman and Milas-Bodrum, serving domestic and international flights and catering to the tourism industry.
• There are yacht marinas in Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye and Güllük.
• There are many privately-run bus connections to İzmir, Antalya, Ankara, Istanbul and other major cities in Turkey from Muğla and directly from the coastal resorts.

History[link]

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, Menteşe Bey, founder of the Beylik (principality) that carried his name, with its capital in Milas, established his rule over the region of Muğla as well. The beys of Menteşe 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 Menteşe 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 Menteşe 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 Süleyman the Magnificent against Rhodes, which was launched from Marmaris.

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.

Well-known residents[link]

The following are notable residents of Muğla province:

• The historian Herodotus of Halicarnassos
• Seaman Turgut Reis
• Arms dealer Basil Zaharoff born in Muğla
• Turkish orthodox church leader in Bodrum Zihni Özdamar, he worked to get the support of the church authorities for the Turkish War of Independence.
• Painter Osman Hamdi Bey had his summer residence in Yatağan
• Avram Galanti, prominent Young Turk and supporter of Atatürk in the Jewish community of Bodrum.
• Şükrü Kaya, Minister of the Interior under Atatürk, born in İstanköy.
• Turkish War of Independence general Mustafa Muğlalı
• Founder of Cumhuriyet newspaper and key supporter of AtatürkYunus Nadi Abalıoğlu, and his son Nadir Nadi Abalıoğlu, from Fethiye.
• Agriculturalist responsible for planting tea in the Eastern Black Sea region Zihni Derin, from Muğla
• Necati Çiller, father of Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, governor of Istanbul in the 1950s, from Milas
• The "Fisherman of Halicarnasoss" writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, and his student Şadan Gökovalı
• Nail Çakırhan, architect of the Akyaka Çakırhan houses and winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture ;
• Amateur astronomer and president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) Janet Akyüz Mattei of Bodrum.
• Folk singer Muğlalı Memiş (Memiş Güniç)
• Singer and fixture of the Bodrum nightclub scene for many years, Zeki Müren
• Poet Can Yücel is buried in Datça, his home in his final years
• Poet Erdogan Cokduru born in Marmaris
• Former President Kenan Evren now retired in Marmaris, where he spends his days painting

Districts[link]

Muğla province is divided into 12 districts (capital district in bold):

• Bodrum
• Dalaman
• Datça
• Fethiye
• Kavaklıdere
• Köyceğiz
• Marmaris
• Milas
• Muğla
• Ortaca
• Ula
• Yatağan

Politics[link]

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[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Muğla Province

• Muğla governor's official website (Turkish)
• Muğla municipality's official website (Turkish)
• Local information (Turkish)
• Pictures of the capital of Muğla province
• Muğla weather forecast information
• Göcek Information Centre
• Muğla Turkey Travel Plans
• Web Site about Muğla province - iMugla (Turkish)(English)
• Datça-Muğla Guide
• Datça City Guide

v t e Muğla Province (in the Aegean region) of Turkey Urban districts Muğla Rural districts Bodrum - Dalaman - Datça - Fethiye - Kavaklıdere - Köyceğiz - Marmaris - Milas - Ortaca - Ula - Yatağan Regions Provinces Aegean Afyonkarahisar - Aydın - Denizli - Izmir - Kütahya - Manisa - Muğla - Uşak Black Sea Amasya - Artvin - Bartın - Bayburt - Bolu - Çorum - Düzce - Giresun - Gümüşhane - Karabük - Kastamonu - Ordu - Rize - Samsun - Sinop - Tokat - Trabzon - Zonguldak Central Anatolia Aksaray - Ankara - Çankırı - Eskişehir - Karaman - Kayseri - Kırıkkale - Kırşehir - Konya - Nevşehir - Niğde - Sivas - Yozgat Eastern Anatolia Ağrı - Ardahan -Bingöl - Bitlis - Elâzığ - Erzincan - Erzurum - Hakkâri - Iğdır - Kars - Malatya - Muş - Siirt - Tunceli - Van Marmara Balıkesir - Bilecik - Bursa - Çanakkale - Edirne - Istanbul - Kırklareli - Kocaeli - Sakarya - Tekirdağ - Yalova Mediterranean Adana - Antalya- Burdur - Hatay - Isparta - Kahramanmaraş - Mersin - Osmaniye Southeastern Anatolia Adıyaman - Batman - Diyarbakır - Gaziantep - Kilis - Mardin - Şanlıurfa - Şırnak

v t e Provinces of Turkey Adana Adıyaman Afyonkarahisar Ağrı Aksaray Amasya Ankara Antalya Ardahan Artvin Aydın Balıkesir Bartın Batman Bayburt Bilecik Bingöl Bitlis Bolu Burdur Bursa Çanakkale Çankırı Çorum Denizli Diyarbakır Düzce Edirne Elazığ Erzincan Erzurum Eskişehir Gaziantep Giresun Gümüşhane Hakkâri Hatay Iğdır Isparta Istanbul İzmir Kahramanmaraş Karabük Karaman Kars Kastamonu Kayseri Kilis Kırıkkale Kırklareli Kırşehir Kocaeli Konya Kütahya Malatya Manisa Mardin Mersin Muğla Muş Nevşehir Niğde Ordu Osmaniye Rize Sakarya Samsun Şanlıurfa Siirt Sinop Şırnak Sivas Tekirdağ Tokat Trabzon Tunceli Uşak Van Yalova Yozgat Zonguldak

Coordinates: 37°01′49″N 28°30′23″E / 37.03028°N 28.50639°E / 37.03028; 28.50639

Muğla
—  Province center, District  —
Location of Muğla district within Muğla Province.
Muğla Location of Muğla district within Muğla Province.
Coordinates: 37°22′N 28°36′E / 37.367°N 28.6°E / 37.367; 28.6Coordinates: 37°22′N 28°36′E / 37.367°N 28.6°E / 37.367; 28.6
Country	Turkey
Region	Aegean
Province	Muğla
First cited	In 2nd century BC under the indigenous name of Mobolla during its passage from a Carian federation linked with Taba (Tavas) to Rhodian domination.
Lycian or Carian to Menteşe Turkish period (14th century)	Cited as Mobolla with an intermediate form Mogolla attested later.
Menteşe Turkish period (13th century) to the present	Cited as Muğla and a Menteşe urban center, after 1426 center of an Ottoman vilayet, after 1923 center of the homonymous province under the Turkish Republic
Municipalities	5
Government
• Mayor	Osman Gürün (CHP)
• Prefect
Area
• Total	1,582 km2 (611 sq mi)
Elevation	660 m (2,170 ft)
Population (2007)[1]
• Total	94,207 (district)
• Density	59.6/km2 (154/sq mi)
• center	61,550
Time zone	EET (UTC+3)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code
Area code(s)	(+90) 252
Licence plate	48
Website	Muğla Municipality Governorship of Muğla

Muğla (pronounced [mu:ɫa]) is a city in south-western Turkey. It is the center of the district the same name, as well as of Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey´s Aegean coast. Muğla center is situated inland at an altitude of 660 m and lies at a distance of about 30 km (19 mi) from the nearest seacoast in the Gulf of Gökova to its south-west. Muğla district area neighbors the district areas of Milas, Yatağan and Kavaklıdere to its north by north-west and those of Ula and Köyceğiz, all of whom are depending districts. Muğla is the administrative capital of a province that incorporates internationally well-known and popular tourist resorts such as Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye.

The district area's physical features are determined by several pot-shaped high plains abbreviated by mountains, of which the largest is the one where the city of Muğla is located and which is called under the same name (Muğla Plain). It is surrounded by slopes denuded of soil, paved with calcerous formations and a scrub cover which gives the immediate vicinity of Muğla a barren look uncharacteristic for its region. Arable land is restricted to valley bottoms.

A relatively small city of 61,550 (2009 estimates) and often overlooked by visitors to near-by coastal resorts, Muğla has received a new boost with the foundation of Muğla University in the 1990s. Today, the university brings together a student community of 16,000 and, added by its academia and staff, it played a key role in bringing movement to the city and in opening it to the outside world. Its former profile of a predominantly rural, difficult to access, isolated and underpopulated region enclosed with a rugged mountainous complex is now coming to an end. Also in recent years, a major program of restoration of the city's architectural heritage has enhanced local tourism. The city remains an orderly, compact and leafy provincial center which could keep its old neighborhoods without surrendering to a boom in concrete constructions and displays a progressist mind as exemplified by the pride still expressed on having had Turkey's first female provincial governor in the 1990s, Ms. Lale Aytaman. Nevertheless, Muğla still lacks sizeable manufacturing and processing centers and relies on trades, crafts, services, tourism and agriculture in its economy.

History[link]

• See Muğla Province and Caria for more information on the history of the area as a whole

In ancient times, Muğla was apparently a rather insignificant settlement halfway on the passage between the Carian cities of Idrias (later Stratonicea) to the north and Idyma (modern Akyaka) to the southwest on the coast. The indigenous name Mobolla, which survives with little change, appears for the first time in the beginning of the 2nd century BC at the time of its region's passage from what was apparently an eastern Carian federation linked with Taba (modern Tavas) and other cities to Rhodian domination. Mobolla was part of the Rhodian Peraea on a firm basis as of 167 BC until at least the 2nd century AD. The Rhodian territory started here and while region was subject to Rhodes, it was not incorporated in the Rhodian state.

There are almost no ruins to reveal the history of the settlement of Mobolla. On the high hill to the north of the city, a few ancient remains indicate that it was the site of an acropolis. A handful of inscriptions were unearthed within the city itself and they date back to the 2nd century BC..

Turkish-era Muğla also remained a minor site in the beginning despite having been captured relatively early for western Anatolia in the course of the 13th century. The local ruling dynasty of Menteşe had their capital in Milas. Muğla acquired regional importance after it replaced Milas as the seat of the subprovince (sanjak) under the Ottoman Empire in 1420. The sanjak kept the name Menteşe until the Republican Era, when it was renamed Muğla after its seat of government.

Climate[link]

Muğla has a Mediterranean Climate. It is characterised by long, hot and dry summers with cool and wet winters.

Places of interest[link]

Although it is close to major resorts, Muğla has only recently begun to attract visitors. Sights of interest in the city include:

• Vakıflar Hamam - a still operating Turkish bath which dates back to 1258.
• Great Mosque of Muğla (Ulu Cami) - large mosque built in 1344 by the Beys of Menteşe.
• Kurşunlu Cami - large mosque built in 1495
• Konakaltı Han and Yağcılar Han - restored 18th century caravanserais, the first used as an art gallery and facing Muğla Museum, and the second used for more commercial purposes.
• the Ottoman Empire-era bazaar (Arasta) - marked by a clock tower built by a Greek craftsman named Filivari Usta in 1895,
• Muğla City Museum has a good collection of archaeological and ethnographical artefacts, as well as 9 million years old animal and plant fossiles recently discovered in Kaklıcatepe nearby.

The old quarter of Muğla - on the slopes and around Saburhane Square (Meydanı), consisting of about four hundred registered old houses dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, many of which are restored. These houses are mainly in the Turkish/Ottoman style, characterized by hayat ("courtyard") sections accessed through double-shuttered doors called kuzulu kapı ("lamb doors") and dotted with chimneys typical of Muğla. But there are also a number of "Greek" houses. The differences between the two types of houses may have as much to do with the extent to which wood or stone were used in their architecture, and whether they were arranged in intraverted or extraverted styles, as with who inhabited them previously.

Local students tend to hang out in open air cafés along the İzmir highway or in the caravanserai or in Sanat Evi ("Art House"), an Ottoman style residence that has been turned into a café/art gallery exhibiting principally wood carvings.

Politics[link]

Street in the new quarters of Muğla.

Muğla's political color has traditionally been center-left. In Turkey's 2004 local elections, Dr. Osman Gürün (CHP) was re-elected, increasing his votes to 43,28 %, aided in this by the abrupt virtual collapse of the other center-left party the DSP. The 2004 elections were the seventh successive victory for the center-left candidates in the Muğla municipality. Turkey's incumbent AKP and the traditional center-right DYP have each obtained (24,5-24.75 %). In 2009 communal elections, MHP made a significant leap in votes and reached %24,2 of casts. CHP had collected almost half of the votes at %46.

Sports[link]

The local football club, Muğlaspor currently apply their trade in the third tier of the Turkish football pyramid.

Notable people from Muğla[link]

Street in the old quarters of Muğla.

• Şahidi İbrahim Dede - 15th-16th century Sufi poet.
• Zihni Derin - 20th century agronomist and agriculturalist who pioneered tea production in Turkey
• Nail Çakırhan - 20th century poet and architect

Due to the particularity of its location, commanding a large part of Anatolia's southwestern coast and a number of busy district centers, Muğla is also notable by the large number of people who, short of being natives in the strict sense, had associations of one sort or another with the city, including among its small Greek minority until the 1923 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey.^[4] Among these can be cited;

• Arms trading tycoon Basil Zaharoff, whose family were actually Greeks of the Ottomnan capital but who was born in Muğla in 1849.
• Mining and poultry magnate Yavuz Sıtkı Koçman (d. 2002) who contributed an important part of his fortune to building the university in the 1990s.
• The French actress of Greek descent Anna Mouglalis, as attested by her name, can trace her roots to the city.

Sources[link]

See also[link]

• Caria
• Menteşe (Anatolian beyliks)
• Muğla University

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Muğla

v t e Townships of Muğla District, Turkey Muğla Bayır Kafaca Yerkesik Yeşilyurt

v t e Muğla in Muğla Province (in the Aegean region) of Turkey Urban districts Muğla Rural districts Bodrum - Dalaman - Datça - Fethiye - Kavaklıdere - Köyceğiz - Marmaris - Milas - Ortaca - Ula - Yatağan Regions Provinces Aegean Afyonkarahisar - Aydın - Denizli - Izmir - Kütahya - Manisa - Muğla - Uşak Black Sea Amasya - Artvin - Bartın - Bayburt - Bolu - Çorum - Düzce - Giresun - Gümüşhane - Karabük - Kastamonu - Ordu - Rize - Samsun - Sinop - Tokat - Trabzon - Zonguldak Central Anatolia Aksaray - Ankara - Çankırı - Eskişehir - Karaman - Kayseri - Kırıkkale - Kırşehir - Konya - Nevşehir - Niğde - Sivas - Yozgat Eastern Anatolia Ağrı - Ardahan -Bingöl - Bitlis - Elâzığ - Erzincan - Erzurum - Hakkâri - Iğdır - Kars - Malatya - Muş - Siirt - Tunceli - Van Marmara Balıkesir - Bilecik - Bursa - Çanakkale - Edirne - Istanbul - Kırklareli - Kocaeli - Sakarya - Tekirdağ - Yalova Mediterranean Adana - Antalya- Burdur - Hatay - Isparta - Kahramanmaraş - Mersin - Osmaniye Southeastern Anatolia Adıyaman - Batman - Diyarbakır - Gaziantep - Kilis - Mardin - Şanlıurfa - Şırnak