Earthquake territory

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Tuesday 29 March, 2016 by Uncle Spike

Like many of our ancient ruins, Knidos has suffered from severe earthquakes over the centuries. In fact, it lies smack on top of it’s very own namesake faultline. Talk about bad luck in picking a building plot for a huge city!

A major event in the late Hellenistic period (around 2nd-3rd century BC) destroyed the original Round Temple. It was subsequently rebuilt, and then bam, in 459 AD (so around late Roman to early Byzantine times), a surface quake destroyed much of the city and seriously fractured the rebuilt Round Temple. The fracture lines are clearly evident, as you can see.

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