CARIA, an ancient district of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by Ionia and Lydia, on the west and south by the Aegean Sea, and on the east by Lycia and a small part of Phrygia. The coast-line consists of a succession of great promontories alternat ing with deep inlets. The most important inlet, the Ceramic Gulf, or Gulf of Cos, extends inland for 7o m., between the great mountain promontory terminating at Myndus on the north, and that which extends to Cnidus and the remarkable headland of Cape Krio on the south. North of this is the deep bay called in ancient times the Gulf of Iasus, and beyond this again was the deeper inlet which formerly extended inland between Miletus and Priene, but of which the outer part has been entirely filled up by the alluvial deposits of the Maeander. South of Cape Krio again is the gulf known as the Gulf of Doris, with several subordinate inlets, bounded on the south by the rugged promontory of Cynos sema (mod. Cape Alupo). Between this headland and the frontier of Lycia is the sheltered bay of Marmarice, noted in modern times as one of the finest harbours of the Mediterranean.
Almost the whole of Caria is mountainous. The two great masses of Cadmus (Boz Dagh) and Salbacus (Baba Dagh) are in fact portions of the great chain of Taurus (see ASIA MINOR). From these lofty ranges there extends a broad tableland (in many parts more than 3,00o ft. high).
The coast is fringed by numerous islands, in some instances separated only by narrow straits from the mainland. Of these the most celebrated are Rhodes and Cos. The country known as Caria was shared between the Carians proper and the Caunians, who were a wilder people, inhabiting the district between Caria and Lycia. They were not considered to be of the same blood as the Carians, and were, theref ore, excluded from the temple of the Carian Zeus at Mylasa, which was common to the Carians, Lydians and Mysians, though their language was the same as that of the Carians proper. Herodotus (i. 17 2) believed the Caunians to have been aborigines, the Carians having been originally called Leleges, who had been driven from the Aegean islands by the in vading Greeks. This seems to have been a prevalent view among the Greek writers, for Thucydides (i. 8) states that when Delos was "purified" more than half the bodies found buried in it were those of "Carians." A considerable number of short Carian inscriptions has been found, most of them in Egypt. They were first noticed by Lepsius at Abu-Simbel, where he correctly inferred that they were the work of the Carian mercenaries of Psammetichus. The language, so far as it has been deciphered, is "Asianic" and not Indo European.
The excavations of W. R. Paton at Assarlik (Journ. Hell. Studies, 1887) and of F. Winter at Idrias have resulted in the dis covery of Late-Mycenaean and Geometric pottery. Caria, how ever, figured but little in history. It was absorbed into the king dom of Lydia, where Carian troops formed the bodyguard of the king. Cnidus and Halicarnassus on the coast were colonized by Dorians. At Halicarnassus (q.v.) the Mausoleum, the monument erected by Artemisia to her husband Mausolus, about 36o B.C., was excavated by Sir C. T. Newton in 1857-1858. Cnidus (q.v.) was excavated at the same time, when the "Cnidian Lion," now in the British Museum, was found crowning a tomb near the site of the old city (C. T. Newton, History of Discoveries at Cnidus, Halicarnassus and Branchidae).
In the Persian epoch, native dynasts established themselves in Caria and even extended their rule over the Greek cities. The last of them seems to have been Pixodarus, after whose death the crown was seized by a Persian, Orontobates, who offered a vigor ous resistance to Alexander the Great. But his capital, Halicar nassus, was taken after a siege, and the principality of Caria con ferred by Alexander on Ada, a princess of the native dynasty. Soon afterwards the country was incorporated into the Syrian empire and then into the kingdom of Pergamum, as part of which it passed into the Roman province of Asia.
See W. M. Ramsay, "Historical Geography of Asia Minor" (R.G.S.
iv., 189o) ; W. Ruge and E. Friedrich, Archiiologische Karte von Klein asien (1899) ; Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Carla and Lycia (Eng. trans., 1892) ; A. H. Sayce, "The Karian Lan guage and Inscriptions" (T.S.B.A. ix. 1, 1887) ; P. Kretschmer, Ein leitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache, pp. 376-384 (1896) .
For the coinage see NUMISMATICS. (A. H. S.)