Ancient Greek Boxer's Grave in Marmaris

türkçe

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 22 May 2018)


Laid to rest after his last "scheduled 10-rounder".

In the village of Turgut in Marmaris district, Muğla province,
there is a grave visited for years by local residents, who made
vows and wishes, thinking that the grave harbored a saint.  In
fact, it has been learned that the grave belongs to the ancient
Greek boxer Diagoras, who lived on the Greek island of Rhodes
in the 3rd century B.C.

It is claimed that it was Diagoras who had the following 
warning posted as the grave's inscription: "No coward shall
harm my grave."  Supposedly, people from the village who 
have dug for treasure illegally there have either died, gotten
divorced or become ill.  


                 The real Colossus of Rhodes.

The tomb is the only one of a pyramid shape that remains
standing in Turkey.  Diagoras, who warned against damage
to his grave 2,300 years ago, said that "I will observe everything
from up above so no cowardly man should come and damage
my grave."   The tomb is about 30 kilometers from Marmaris
and up until 40 years ago, men from the village going off to
do their military service would take a handful of soil from the
grave site with them and return it, if and when the came back
safely. 

Once people learned that the tomb, which is 6 meters high 
and 3 meters wide, wasn't that of a saint, the treasure hunting
began and statues of Diagoras and his wife Aristomakha are
thought to have been stolen, as well.