Myndos Gate

Historical Site

The twin-towered monumental western gate of the Halicarnassus walls — where the bloodiest fighting of Alexander the Great’s siege took place.

Standing at Bodrum’s western exit with towers rising on either side, the Myndos Gate is the monumental western passage through the walls that once encircled ancient Halicarnassus. The walls were built in the 4th century BC under Maussollos, the Carian satrap who also raised the Mausoleum; the Myndos Gate was the most magnificent point of that defensive line. It takes its name from the road running to the city of Myndos (today’s Gümüşlük) at the peninsula’s western tip.

The event that wrote the gate into history came in 334 BC. When Alexander the Great besieged Halicarnassus, the bloodiest fighting of the siege happened exactly before this gate; the broad defensive ditch dug in front of it became a deadly obstacle for the attackers, and ancient sources describe the struggle here in detail. The city finally fell, and Alexander handed its rule to Queen Ada, who had withdrawn to Alinda — so what happened before this gate also changed Bodrum’s ancient government.

Today the gate remains, the traces of the ditch before it and the landscaped green area can be visited freely; information panels tell the story of the siege. Together with the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and Bodrum Castle, it completes a Halicarnassus trio reachable from our hotel on a short walk or a few minutes’ drive.