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Datça in history

The finds on the Datça Peninsula show that settlement there goes as far back as 2,000 BC. The first known local inhabitants were the Carians, while the peninsula enjoyed its most prosperous times during the Doric era. The Dorians came from Thrace to Greece and from Greece to the peninsula in 1,000 BC. They founded Knidos in the Burgaz region, 1.5 kilometres to the north east of the present centre. Knidos was the centre of the Doric civilisation. In 546 BC, with the Lydian state falling under Persian rule, Knidos also came under Persian control. In the 4th century BC, for commercial reasons, the site of Knidos was moved to the current location on the end of the peninsula where you see the impressive ruins of the city. The Dorians and the Romans built many temples in Knidos, with the city becoming famed for its statutes of Aphrodite. In the late Roman and Early Byzantine eras, the temples were replaced by churches. In the Late Byzantine era the population reached 70,000 but after a series of earthquakes and pirate attacks, the city was abandoned. The population of the peninsula shrank to one thousand.

In the 13th century, the settlements on the peninsula were linked to the Turkish Kingdom of Menteşeoğulları. Datça became a part of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. In the late Ottoman era Datça was known as Reşadiye, after Sultan Reşad, but was renamed Datça after the Turkish Republic was founded. In 1928, Datça became a township, with the first central district called Reşadiye and in 1947 it was moved to its current centre near the quay.