Almost the whole of Caria is mountainous.
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.
Caria, however, figured but little in history.
In the Persian epoch, native dynasts established themselves in Caria and even extended their rule over the Greek cities.
But his capital, Halicarnassus, was taken after a siege, and the principality of Caria conferred by Alexander on Ada, a princess of the native dynasty.