Milas has at least five thousand years behind it, and in the earliest ages it was the most important city of the Carian civilisation that ruled south-western Anatolia. Its ancient name was Mylasa, and it was founded at the foot of Mount Sodra, in the west of that mountainous country.
Twice in its history it has been a capital: once under Caria and once under the Menteşe principality. Carian, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Menteşid and Ottoman civilisations all ruled here, and a great many works from all of them survive in and around the town.
The names have explanations of their own. Mylasa takes its name from Mylasos, a descendant of Aiolos the god of the winds, and on the archaeological evidence its founding reaches back to the first millennium BC. Strabo, the geographer of the 1st century BC, derived the word Caria from the plumed helmet.
Under Caria the city was an important centre and a satrapal seat; after about 280 BC the kingdom of Pergamon came to dominate Caria. Twenty-seven ancient cities were founded within the territory of Milas. The Gümüşkesen tomb, the Beçin castle, Labraunda, Euromos and the Ottoman houses of the town each have their own page below.
