Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology is owned, administered and operated by the General Directorate of Monuments and Museums of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Turkey

The Bodrum Castle officially became a museum in 1961 with Mr. Haluk Elbe as its first Director, but its real though unofficial beginnings go back a little further, to 1959, when the first appropriation of Turkish government funds (equivalent to about US$50.00) was received in Bodrum for preliminary repairs of breeches in the castle walls. The first collection of objects retrieved from the depths was stored and exhibited in 1959 in the Knights' Hall which today gives access to the Carian Princess exhibit. This embryo of the Bodrum Museum included amphorae brought by Bodrum sponge divers as well as objects recovered during the exploratory dives made by Peter Throckmorton, Mustafa Kapkin and Honor Frost in 1958, the year when those pioneers planted the first seeds of scientific nautical archaeology.

When the Bodrum Castle was designated as a museum it was little more than a romantic ruin attractive only to those interested in traces left by medieval crusading knights on the Anatolian shore. For that story click (THE CASTLE). Castle restoration projects and the beautification of grounds were started by the first director, Mr. Haluk Elbe, whose name has been given to the art gallery at the entrance to the museum. But it is the director, Mr. Oguz Alpozen, (retired in july 2005) who deserves credit for implementing the "living museum" concept which attracts hundreds of thousands visitors and which has earned international renown and recognition in the form of the Museum of the Year Award. In the present time Bodrum Museum of the Underwater Archaeology is directed by Mr.Yaşar Yıldız .

Fifty-two museums from all over Europe were entered in the "European Museum of the Year Award '95" (EMYA'95) competition; forty-five were declared eligible to compete and twelve went into the final round. The Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, representing Turkey, survived the initial selection process, .became one of twelve finalists and was awarded a "Certificate of Special Commendation 1995" at the competition finals held on June 10 in Sweden"

Today, Bodrum Castle discloses only two of its personalities; the third is thankfully not in evidence.

Its massive, battlemented walls, five towers and  seven gates shows that it was once a fortress of note.  Numerous inscriptions and coats-of-arms seen embedded at various points in the structure testify to its medieval, multi-national origins - there are no visible traces left of previous Carian, Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk construction.   Even though their proprietorship of the castle lasted only some 120 years, the prevailing aura today is still of its former Crusader occupants, the Knights Hospitaller of St. John.  This is due to a large extent to the castle’s restoration and accentuation with period furnishings, all done by Turkish authorities after its transformation into a museum.
 

This period of the Bodrum Castle may be of particular interest to the western visitor due to associations with historical events which have made lasting impressions on European heritage and culture, but such interest presupposes a modicum of knowledge of the past or, at least, some familiarity with Sheakespeare.  Why Sheakespeare?  Because, in the play “Henry IV”, the Bard mentions by name a number of the English knights who fought in the battle of Agincourt - the roll-call of honor includes Bedford, Exeter, Warwick, Salisbury and Gloucester - whose coats-of-arms can be seen today above the portal of the English Tower.
 

Very appropriately there are many reminders of French presence here since a Frenchman, Philibert de Naillac, was the Grand Master of the Order when the castle was founded.  When we look at the royal arms of France in the north wall perhaps some will remember that the inscribed date, 1460, was near the end of the reign of Charles VII whose coronation was made possible by Jeanne d’Arc’s victory over the English at Orleans.  It is interesting to speculate how French and English knights coexisted in Bodrum when their native lands were at war with each other...
 

German visitors can admire the handiwork of their countryman Henrik Schlegelholdt. the chief architect of the fortress.  The restored German Tower bears the escutcheon of the German Langue or “Tongue”.  This designation identified chapters of knights within the Order by their linguistic groups, language being the primary indicator of their nationality.  By the 1400s there were few German knights in the Hospitaller Order, most preferring to enlist in the Order of Teutonic Knights active in Prussia.
   Spaniards and Italians can also find traces left by their countrymen in the Bodrum Castle, associations that fill out the tapestry of the fifteenth century in western Europe.  This aspect of the castle blends with its second face, reflected by its current status as one of the world’s finest museums of underwater archaeology.  Amphoras strewn around castle grounds set the atmosphere for visits to exhibits of superb artifacts recovered from ancient shipwrecks, a reconstructed wreck and displays of the underwater excavation process.  The harmony between the ancient maritime exhibits and the medieval setting is noteworthy.
 

The third, mostly forgotten face of the Bodrum Castle is that of a prison, established as such in 1893 in the reign of Abdulhamid II.   This sultan, known for phobia of plots against his absolute rule and his suppression of civil liberties, had many champions of freedom sent into exile or imprisoned, some in the Bodrum Castle.  But not only supporters of liberty were jailed here.  When reactionary fanatics tried to have Islamic religious law (Seriat) re-imposed in1909, two of their foremost rabble-rousers were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bodrum Castle when the rebellion was defeated.
 

Some captured mountain robbers also spent time behind the castle walls.  After the turn of the century bands of outlaws infested the mountains and forests robbing the rich and, sometimes, helping the poor.  Some of their leaders, known as “Efe”, have been immortalized in folk songs and their dignified, deliberate demeanor and colorful costumes can be readily seen in Aegean regional dances.
 

The last to be sent here for incarceration in the fortress was Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, a writer who gained fame under the pen-name of “The Fisherman of Halicarnassus”.  His persecutors apparently didn’t know that the prison was closed a decade earlier, and the local governor was a person of culture, so the new “convict” was assisted in renting a house looking out on the sea.  His infatuation with Bodrum and its heritage poured out of the pages of his many books and brought renown to this formerly laid-back fishing village, today’s resort town of Bodrum.