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about one hundred and fifty metres. By extending moles from the mainland and from the island at either end of the channel, it would thus be possible to create two deep water harbours, the one on the west rather smaller, with a narrower entrance, more susceptible to storm swells, and the one on the east slightly more open and considerably larger, with a central entrance facing towards the island of Rhodes. The thinking was that shipping from the east would pass north of the point of Rhodes, or setting sail from Rhodes itself, bear under the Isle of Symi, across the Gulf of Doris between Nisyros and Knidos, passing very close to Cape Crio before turning north into the Gulf of Kos and the Ceramic Gulf to Halicarnassus and thence into the Aegean. Not for nothing can it be said that Knidos was to be built for maritime protection exactly at the junction of the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean proper. Incidentally, to sail the alternative route into the central Aegean, passing the southern tip of Rhodes and towards Carpathos and Crete is to court disaster. The Carpathian Sea is one of the worst I have ever had the misfortune to sail in. Like Halicarnassus, only more so, Knidos is difficult to get to by land, but very much more easily reached reach by sea.

The designers of the new city took every advantage of the spectacular local topography. With the Hippodamian grid very much in vogue, they decided to apply it here. However, unlike the Piraeus, or Rhodes, or Miletus, which were on a level plane, the Knidian grid-iron was to be elevated to around twenty degrees. In a truly remarkable feat of engineering, huge artificial ashlar-blocked stone terraces were erected, one above another, filled in behind with the spoil created by cutting into the slope at the back of each terrace, row by row, up the hillsides on the mainland and facing them on the island, set out like two gigantic opposing straight rows of stadium seats, one on either side of the newly built harbours. Along these terraces were built horizontal roadways, linked at regular intervals by stepped streets, to create a series of regular, tiered city blocks. At the crucial position on the mainland just above the western Commercial Harbour, a three-width block was planned as the focus of the city.

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