Muğla
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- This article is about the provincial capital. For the province, see Muğla province
 Muğla, Turkey |
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 Old Muğla on the slopes of the flat-topped Mount Hisar or Asar (Dağı) |
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 Location in Turkey |
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| Muğla, Turkey briefly | |
| Province | Muğla |
| Urban Population | 43845[1] (2000) |
| District Population | 83511[2] (2000) |
| Elevation | 660 m |
| Coordinates | 37°12′ N 28°21′ |
| Postal code | 48x xx |
| Area code | 0252 |
| Licence plate code | 48 |
| Mayor | Dr. Osman Gürün (Republican People's Party) |
| Website | http://www.mugla.bel.tr |
Muğla (Greek: Μούγλα) is the seat of Muğla province which stretches along Turkey´s Aegean coast in the southwest of the country.
Muğla lies around 20 kilometres inland. It is situated at an altitude of 660 meters in one of the pot-shaped small plains surrounded by mountains as formed by depressions in the Neogene (the other similar formations in the immediate neighborhood are the Yeşilyurt, Ula, Gülağzı, Yerkesik, Akkaya, Çamköy and Yenice plains). It should be added that, until the recent building of highways, contacts between these plains with either the coastal regions, or the passage into inland centers (through one of the three difficult passes; to northwest to Milas, to the north to the Menderes plain through Gökbel, or to the northeast to Tavas) were quite arduous, and the region as a whole always tended to develop its peculiarities.
Muğla is situated approximately 85 kilometres east of the popular tourist resort at Bodrum, and approximately 40 kilometres north of another main tourist resort in Muğla province at Marmaris. Fethiye, yet another rising tourist venue, is further south. These towns depend on Muğla administratively.
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[edit] Features
Unlike Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye, Muğla has started to be discovered by tourists only recently. Its sights of interest include an Ottoman-era bazaar (Arasta) marked by a clock tower built by a Greek craftsman named Filivari Usta in 1895, its Great Mosque (in Turkish Kurşunlu Cami) built in 1495, and the Vakıflar Hamam, which dates back to 1258.
The old quarter of Muğla, consisting of about 400 registered old houses 100 to 300 years old, mainly in Turkish style characterised with hayat sections and peculiar chimneys, but also some so-called Greek houses, is particularly dazzling. The differences between the two types of houses has often more to do with the extent to which wood or stone were used in their architecture, and whether they were arranged in an intraverted or extraverted styles, rather that with who inhabited them.
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 city is also home to Muğla University. The local football club, Muğlaspor currently apply their trade in the third tier of the Turkish football pyramid.
[edit] 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. The original name of Muğla is open for discussion. Various sources refer to the city as Mogola, Mobella or Mobolia.
In Hellenistic and İmperial times it was a rather insignificant settlement in the part of the Rhodian Peraea which was subject to Rhodes but not incorporated in the Rhodian state, and was called under the Carian name of Mobolla. There are almost no ruins to enlighten the history of the settlement of Muğla. On the high hill to the north of the city, the presence of some insignificant ancient remains indicate that an acropolis was located here. Two inscriptions unearthed within the city are from the 2nd century B.C., attesting to the Rhodian domination.
In 1261 CE, the Menteşe Bey, founder of the Beylik (principality) that carried his name and that had its capital in Milas, established his control over Muğla region. The beys of Menteshe held the city until 1390. The Turkish settlement in the region as a whole during the Menteşe period is known to have taken place through migrations following 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 they did for other Anatolian Turkish Beyliks. Muğla was brought back under Ottoman control, this time by Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, in 1451.
The city acquired a regional importance after it replaced Milas as the seat of the subprovince (sanjak) under the Ottomans. The sanjak carried the name Menteşe till the Republican Era when it was renamed after its seat (Muğla). One of the most important events for the city during the Ottoman period was the well-recorded passage in the region of Süleyman the Magnificent and his armies, while on the way to the campaign of Rhodes, which was launched with Marmaris as the base of departure for the troops.
The most famous international personality of recent date from Muğla is the arms trading tycoon Basil Zaharoff, whose family were actually Greeks of İstanbul, but he was born in Muğla in 1849. The French actress Anna Mouglalis, as attested by her name, can trace her roots to the city. [1]
A sleepy town of 20000 till recently, disregarded by visitors in a hurry to reach its coastal resorts, Muğla has refound its fortunes thanks to the rapid growth of Muğla University. In this, the university and the city owes much to the late (died 2002) mining and poultry magnate Mr. Yavuz Sıtkı Koçman, who contributed an important part of his fortune in the university building effort in the 1990s. Today, the university (and the city) boasts a 16000-strong student community, which opened the city to the outside (including international) world. A serious mobilization for the restoration of the city's architectural heritage also enhanced local tourism.
[edit] Politics
Muğla's political color has traditionally been center-left. In Turkey's 2004 local elections, Dr. Osman Gürün (CHP) has been re-elected, increasing his votes to 43,28 %, aided in this by the virtual and abrupt disappearance of the other center-left party led by Bülent Ecevit which headed the ruling coalition till 2002, the DSP, from Turkey's political scene. 2004 elections were the seventh successive municipal elections (since 1973) in which the center-left candidates have won the Muğla municipality. Turkey's incumbent AKP and the traditional center-right DYP have each obtained (24,5-24.75 %). The rightist MHP campaigning on Turkish-identity consciousness arguments has a very bleak presence in Muğla city (1,99 %), as well as the urban center-right ANAP of the former (till November, 2002) coalition government (2 votes in about 25000).
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Districts of Muğla Province, Turkey |  |
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Muğla | Bodrum | Dalaman | Datça | Fethiye | Kavaklıdere | Köyceğiz | Marmaris | Milas | Ortaca | Ula | Yatağan |
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Municipalities of Muğla District, Turkey | |
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Muğla | Bayır | Kafaca | Yerkesik | Yeşilyurt |
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