Ancient Greek coastal city, southwestern Anatolia.
An important commercial centre and the home of a renowned medical school, Cnidus was one of six cities in the Dorian Hexapolis. It came under the control of the Persian Achaemenian dynasty after 546 BC. A democracy in the 4th century BC, it fell under Ptolemaic control in the 3rd century BC. A free city within the Roman province of Asia, it lasted until the 7th century AD, when it was abandoned. Excavation has revealed numerous public buildings, including the Temple of Aphrodite, where fragments of the celebrated statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles were discovered.