The Muğla Museum is situated in the old prison building that is behind the courthouse. At the end of 1992, as a result of the excavations made in Özlüce Village Kaklıcatepe, many animal and plant fossils were found. In 1994 the museum was opened for visits with the exhibition of these fossils.
The fossils being exhibited in the Muğla Museum belong to the creatures that lived 5 – 9 million years ago. These creatures have lived on a wide area from the Eastern Asia to Spain. The fossils of the creatures of this period have been found in the Tervel Basin of Spain, therefore this period is called Turolian.
During the excavations, fossils of a giraffe family, horned creatures, a rhinoceros family, hosed mammals, a pig family, a horse family and carnivorous and many kinds of plants were found. A part of these fossils is exhibited in the natural history part of the museum.
Another part open for visit in the Muğla Museum is the ethnography section. Clothes and daily use tools from various parts of Muğla are being exhibited in this section.
Stratonikeia
The archaic city of Stratonikeia lies in the borders of Eskihisar Village on Yatağan – Milas highway that is 6 – 7 km to the west of Yatağan District of Muğla.
The city was established in the 3rd century BC. Syrian King 1st Seleukos(Seleukos I) gave his wife Stratonike to his son Antiokhos. Antiokhos has established a city in the name of Stratonike, who was first his step mother, and then his wife.
According to Strabon, who was a traveler and a writer, the city was full of very beautiful buildings. From the coins obtained during the excavations, it is understood that Stratonikeia coins had been minted since the date of its gaining its independence from Rhodes in 167 BC and continued until the Gallienus period (253 – 268 AD).
The acropolis of the city is at the top of a mountain in the south. This top is surrounded with a wall. Ruins of a small temple constructed for the emperor can be seen on a terrace on the noth slope of the mountain, just below the highway of today.
There is a theatre below this temple. Here, a cavea is divided into 9 cuneusas with stairs and there is a single diazoma. The remainders of the stage building have been exposed to a great extent as a result of the excavations. Above the archaic city, Eskihisar Village, which is left today, is located. The city is surrounded with walls and today, only unimportant projections of the city walls can be seen. The ruins of a strong fort made of cut stones and lime mortar lie in the northeastern corner of the settlement area. From the inscription stones and column bodies taken from other buildings, it is understood that the building was repaired.
The main entrance door in the north of the city consists of large blocks. It is made with wide and fine masonry. The ruins show that there was an arch on that door. The door has two entrances. There is a nymphaion between the two door entrances. Behind the door, an area with columns and a road are seen.
In the middle of the city, the most significant building, a bouleuterion, where the city assembly meets, is located. A door standing alone in the west of this building is the entrance door of the area. This was claimed to be Serapis Temple; but the inscriptions found in the excavations have shown that this thought was wrong. On the northen external wall of the Bouleuterion, the price list of Diocletianus and the introduction part relating to the application of it are written in Latin. The seats of this building in the lower part are protected.
In the western part of the city, the building named a gymnasion, where the young people were trained in intellectual and physical aspects and trained sports in Ancient Greek and Rome, exists.
There are chamber graves at the side of the holy road in front of the entrance door of the city. The holy road starting from the entrance door passes through the necropolis and reaches to the Hekate holy area in Lagina. This necropolis area has disappeared today remaining under a coal mine basin.
Lagina
Lagina Hekate holy area is on the borders of the Turgut Area of the Yatağan District of Muğla. The Lagina ruins are reached by going 9 km by the asphalt road that splits in to two taking the right near the Thermal plant. The fame of the Lagina holy area, which was an important cult centre of Karia, has reached today and this area is now called Lenye.
The last researches have shown that the region has an uninterrupted settlement since the ancient Bronze Age (3000 BC) until today. Seleukos kings have made the Lagina holy area a religion centre and Stratonikeia city, which is 11 km away, a political centre.
In accordance with the information we obtained from the inscriptions that are still existent on the Stratonikeia bouleuterion walls of Lagina, these two cities were connected to each other with a holy road.
In the Lagina holy area, a propylon (monumental entrance door), a holy road, an altar, a a periobolos (wall surrounding the holy area), the Doric Stoas and the Hekate temple are located.
The holy area is also surrounded by 2 metre walls forming the back wall of the Stoas. The monumental entrance door having three entrances and an apsis carried by four Ionian columns is connected to the Stoas via a door.
There are 10 stair series connected to the stone laid road going to the altar from the monumental entrance door. The temple surrounded by five stair series and based on a platform that has a single series of columns with the Korinth heads and the Attic Ion aisles, is in the middle of the holy area. The temple is constructed in the pseudo dipteros style, with 8 x 11 columns in the Korinth style. There are two Ionian columns in the Pronaos part.
The archaeological excavations carried out in the Lagina holy area are important in terms of their being the first archaeological excavations carried out by the Turkish scientists. These excavations have been carried out by Osman Hamdi Bey and Halit Ethem Bey. In 1993, the archaeological excavation and the restoration works were re – started under the control of the Muğla Museum Directorate and the consultancy of an architect-archeologist Ahmet Tırpan.
The friezes of the temple have been taken to the İstanbul Archaeology Museum by Osman Hamdi Bey and they are being exhibited in the same museum. The friezes have four different themes. (In the east: scenes relating to the life of Zeus: in the west: the war of the gods and giants; in the south: Karia meeting of the gods; in the north: the war of Amazons)
Sedir Island
Sedir Island (Kedriai ancient city), that is on the borders of the Ula district, in the Gökova Gulf, with its archaeological natural structure, is one of the parts of the region, where cultural tourism is very dense. Transportation to Sedir Island is provided with boats from Gökova – Akyaka Area or from Çamlıköy.
A great number of towers and walls made of smooth cut stone, the Apollo temple and the church that is made later in its place, the well – protected theatre that is still standing, the agora and the ancient harbor ruins of Sedir Island are places that are worth seeing.
