Muğla Province

Muğla Province (Turkish: Muğla ili, pronounced [muːɫa iˈli]) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey, at the country's southwestern corner, on the Aegean Sea. Its area is 12,654 km², and its population is 1,048,185 (2022). Its seat is the city of Muğla, about 20 km (12 mi) inland, while some of Turkey's largest holiday resorts, such as Bodrum, Ölüdeniz, Marmaris and Fethiye, lie on the coast.

At 1,100 km (680 mi), Muğla's coastline is the longest among the Provinces of Turkey and is home to the Datça Peninsula. As well as the sea, Muğla has two large lakes, Lake Bafa in the district of Milas and Lake Köyceğiz. The landscape consists of pot-shaped small plains surrounded by mountains, formed by depressions in the Neogene. These include the plain of the city of Muğla itself, Yeşilyurt, Ula, Gülağzı, Yerkesik, Akkaya, Çamköy [tr] and Yenice. Until the recent building of highways, transport from these plains to either the coast or inland was quite arduous, and thus each locality remained an isolated culture of its own. Contact with the outside world was through one of the three difficult passes: northwest to Milas, north to the Menderes plain through Gökbel, or northeast to Tavas.^{[citation needed]}

Despite court decisions upheld by the ECHR, as of 2020, the Yatağan, Yeniköy and Kemerköy coal-fired power stations continue operations as a major source of pollution in the area.

Muğla province is served by land, sea, and air connections. As a costal province, it is home to several marinas and ports.

In ancient Anatolia, the region between the Menderes and Dalaman rivers in the south was called Caria. Caria was inhabited by the eponymous Carians and the Leleges. In the Iliad, Homer described the Carians as natives of Anatolia, defending their country against the Greeks in joint campaigns in collaboration with the Trojans.^{[citation needed]}

A major city of ancient Caria, Muğla is known to have been occupied by raiding parties of Egyptians, Assyrians and Scythians, until eventually the area was settled by Ancient Greek colonists. The Greeks inhabited this coast for a long time and built prominent cities, such as Knidos (at the end of the Datça Peninsula) and Bodrum (Halicarnassos), as well as many smaller towns along the coast of the Bodrum Peninsula and surrounding islands. In the district of Fethiye, ruins remain of the cities of Telmessos, Xanthos, Patara and Tlos. Eventually the coast was conquered by the Persians who were in turn removed by Alexander the Great, bringing an end to the satrapy of Caria.^{[citation needed]}

In 1261, Menteshe Bey, founder of the Beylik (principality) that carried his name, with its capital in Milas and nearby Beçin, established his rule over the region of Muğla as well. The beys of Menteshe held the city until 1390 and were the first Turkish state in the region. They a

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