**2. History**

The first macroscopical and microscopical description of chordomas was given by the German pathologist Rudolf Virchow and depicted on autopsy an incidental, little, slimy development on the surface of clivus [5]. Virchow coined the term "chordomata", and he described its embryonic character and denoted it as 'ecchondrosisphysaliforaspheno-occipitalis' which translates to a "cartilaginous physaliphorous" lesion of the cartilaginous junction between basiocciptal and basisphenoid bones [6]. He used the word "physaliphora" to describe the findings during his microscopic observations. Hugo Ribbert, another German pathologist afterwards proposed the term chordoma.

In 1858, German anatomist Johannes Peter Müller hypothesized that chordomata may originate from notochordal tissue. Müller's hypothesis was based on the point that most vertebrates, counting humans, contain remnants of notochordal tissues but his hypothesis was rejected by Virchow and Luschka (A German anatomist and one of the most prolific anatomical writers of the 19th century) due to a lack of evidence. After a few years later Belgian anatomist Hector Leboucq proposed that notochordal tissue is demolished before human birth [7]. Arnold C. Klebs, a Swiss physician in 1864 first described a patient with spheno-occipital chordomata and afterward in 1889, he stated the first case of cervical vertebrae chordomata. In 1910, physicians Feldmann and Mazzia reported the first official case of a sacrococcygeal Chordoma. In 1919, physician Daland in the USA operated on the first sphenooccipital case. In this year Porter and Daland attempted X-ray treatments on their patient. In 1960, Hungarian neurosurgeons Zoltan and Fenyes noted various initial operation cases to treat cranial chordomas.
