The Cnidia

‘Their land lies towards the open sea—and this is the part which is called Triopion—but begins at the Bybassian Chersonese; and the whole of the Cnidia except for a little bit is surrounded by water, the part facing the north wind being bounded by the Ceramic Gulf, and that on the south by the sea towards Syme and Rhodes. This little bit, then, which is about five stades across, the Cnidians began to dig while Harpagus was conquering Ionia, with the intention of making their land an island. The whole of it was to lie inside; for where the Cnidian land terminates at the mainland, there is the isthmus which they began to dig’ (Hdt. I 174). The Cnidian peninsula measures 63 km. from base to tip. It consists of two mountain masses joined by an isthmus not much more than 2 km. broad. That on the east is rugged and almost uninhabited; but the greater western massif, though barren and sheer on the north side and at the west tip, has fertile land to offer in the small coastal plains of the south and especially in the valley which traverses the interior from Zeytincik to beyond Yaziköy, with its main outlet below Kumyer and a backdoor at Barkaz. A low ridge runs the length of the isthmus with a gentle slope towards the Gulf of Syme and an easy crossing from Reşadiye to the Ceramic Gulf at Körmen Limani.