A land of beautiful vistas over the sea, lovely evening breezes, and majestic sunsets, Aegean Turkey (Turkish: Ege Bölgesi) is the western part of the country, including the Aegean Sea coast across from a wide arch of Greek islands and the adjoining inland areas.
Regions
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| Central Aegean Izmir and its vicinity with lots of history and beautiful seaside towns |
| Northern Aegean milder climate than the south with olive groves everywhere |
| Southern Aegean crystal clear turquoise sea, verdant citrus plantations |
Cities
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- 1 Izmir — Turkey’s third biggest city is a busy harbour and the unofficial capital of the region
- 2 Assos — a pleasant village with preserved traditional buildings and the impressive Temple of Athena overlooking the sea
- 3 Ayvalık — a beautiful town with a distinctive Eastern Mediterranean architecture
- 4 Bergama — the extensive ruins of ancient Pergamon are a must-see
- 5 Bodrum — a trendy resort known for its Templar-built castle and parties going wild
- 6 Çeşme — a historic town and beach resort on a peninsula stretching far west
- 7 Datça — an unspoilt town; the nearby ancient city of Knidos forms the boundary between the Aegean and the Mediterranean
- 8 Denizli — an inland city serving as a hub to Pamukkale, and nearby ancient sites
- 9 Kuşadası — a busy resort town with an island citadel; its port welcomes the Mediterranean cruises
Other destinations
[edit]- 1 Aphrodisias are the great ruins of an ancient city founded in honour of the goddess of love.
- 2 Dilek Peninsula National Park is perhaps the wildest stretch of land on the Turkish Aegean coast, with lush forests, hiking trails and desolate beaches.
- 3 Ephesus is the best preserved of the ancient cities in Turkey, and once the capital of Roman Asia Minor.
- 4 Pamukkale the "cotton castle" is a white world of travertines.
- 5 Priene, Miletus and Didyma are a trio of ancient Greek ruins.
- 6 Sardis is the ruins of the capital of the Lydians, the inventors of "money", backed by craggy Mount Tmolos.
Understand
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The Aegean coast of Turkey is lined by a succession of modern cities with palm-lined avenues and liberal attitudes, towns with old quarters that are filled with elegant turn of the 20th century neo-classical architecture, and ruins of what were once major powers of the Mediterranean in ancient times; all backed by fertile valleys and hills, the sides of which are dotted with picturesque villages and large oliveyards, which help Turkey achieve being one of the biggest producers of olive oil in the world. It's little wonder that much of ancient art and philosophy—from Aristotle to Homer, many were citizens of cities along this coast—was developed in this land of wine and honey, which has a favourable climate year round.
During the Roman era, Aegean Turkey and the neighbouring parts of Central Anatolia constituted the Province of Asia (hence "the Seven Churches of Asia", see below). The name of the province was later extended to include all of the continent that lies to the east.
The climate is Mediterranean, and often very typically so; hot, dry summers (around 30-35°C during the day, 1-2 days of rain a month), warm transitional seasons, and mild, wet winters (around 10-15°C during the day, 8-16 days of rain a month). There is still some climatic variance within the region, however. Cities further inland have chillier winters, with some possibility of snow; while also contending with summers featuring daytime temperature averages over 35°C.
Talk
[edit]Turkish is the main language in the region. Native Greek speakers of Cretan origin formed the majority in many coastal areas, but since the 1980s, the links with Crete are more folkloric than linguistic.
As tourism is one of the main industries of the region, finding someone who can communicate in English or German to a lesser degree is generally not a problem.
Get in
[edit]And see also Istanbul to Izmir, a series of itineraries via historic sites such as Gallipoli and Troy.
By plane: the region’s airports are Izmir (ADB IATA), Bodrum (BJV IATA), and Dalaman (DLM IATA). Frequent flights from Istanbul (IST) take an hour, plus daily flight from Istanbul (SAW), less often from other Turkish cities. All of them in summer have flights from Europe, principally Britain, Germany and Russia: these are package-tours but offer flight-only tickets.
Most of the tourism-oriented towns have direct bus services from many other important centres of the country, such as Istanbul.
Most large hotels, tour operators and car rental companies located in the provinces of Izmir and Bodrum.
All major coastal towns have ferry links with the nearest Greek islands.
Major hub of the region for rail transport is Izmir.
Get around
[edit]See
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Ancient cities: almost any town here has a 3000-year history, recounted in its municipal museum. By far the best are Ephesus and Pergamon, with other impressive sites at Assos, Miletus and Didyma. What you see today reflects a spate of Roman construction around 200 AD over earlier foundations: the state buildings and palaces at the core of a trading metropolis. (You’ll have to imagine the welter of smaller surrounding buildings that disappeared, and the port that dried up and caused the site to be abandoned.) Away from the big-name sites are dotted individual temples, gateways and colonnades, either popping up incongruously amidst a busy modern city, or out in the fields inhabited only by goats.
Medieval architecture is scarce in this region: it fell victim to earthquakes, to the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, and above all to property developers with a boundless supply of concrete. The village of Birgi southeast of Izmir is one charming survival. Mosques have fared better as they were repaired or rebuilt. An interesting example is the İsa Bey Mosque in Selçuk, built in the interregnum between Seljuk and Ottoman styles.
Neo-classical buildings are much more common, as the coastal towns were prettified by Greek and Armenian merchants, and their mansions were left intact. Ayvalık, Foça, Alaçatı, and Çeşme are good examples.
Castles and citadels occupy multiple defensive positions, and many were kept in good repair as barracks or prisons into modern times. The best are at Bodrum, Kuşadası, Çeşme and picturesque Çandarlı. They can feel touristy, but off-the-beaten-path is Babakale, guarding the westernmost tip of the Asian mainland.
Seven Churches of Asia reflect Aegean Turkey’s role in early Christianity. They’re recorded in the Bible’s Revelation of St John (Chapters 1-3), written around 90 AD by John of Patmos. The seven were Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, and at that date were probably just congregations or communities. It’s not known when they acquired dedicated buildings – churches – for religious assembly, but an early step was to adapt pagan temples. (Thus the underground worship of Mithras morphed into the crypt or “undercroft” of present-day churches.) Christian temples were built when that became the Roman official religion from 380 AD, and those of Pergamon, Ephesus and Philadelphia still have visible ruins. The other sites are lost, with no sign of “the number of the Beast 666” or “mother of harlots and abominations” or John’s other rantings and ravings, but at least the “no temple therein” (chapter 22: 22) was one prophecy he got right.
Do
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With its long craggy coastline, finding somewhere for a swim is rarely a daunting task in the region. As for the related watersports, some towns are better suited to them than some others; for example the waters of Alaçatı are good for windsurfing.
With the Mediterranean climate in charge, and the latitude being more southern than most of Europe, there is not much room for wintersports in the region (in coastal locations, it only snows once, and lightly, every decade—this is why the locals find the pictures of the amphitheatre of Ephesus under snow so magical and make them into postcards). While the snow-hungry residents of Izmir flock to Mount Sipylus near Manisa at every opportunity to witness the snowfall, that particular mountain does not really receive that much as to let skiing or doing other snow-related sports. For these, it may be more worthwhile to head more inland to Mt. Bozdağ, or ancient Mount Tmolos between Salihli and Ödemiş, which, with its mountain lake, is beautiful regardless the season.
When it comes to thermal waters, the Aegean is less known as a destination than some other Turkish regions. Two places of note may be Ilıca, which has hot springs discharging from the sea floor inside natural rocky pools, and much more famous Pamukkale, which offers the unique experience of swimming amidst toppled ancient columns lying at the bottom of a thermal water-filled pool, which has been continuously in use for millennia.
Eat
[edit]Drink
[edit]While viticulture is a big business in the agricultural interior of the region, most of the produce is of the Sultana variety, which is not processed into wine, but rather exported as dried raisin. Nevertheless, a number of towns around Denizli has some level of fame for their red wines which often have a strong flavour, while the village of Şirince is well-known nationwide for its wines produced out of just about any fruit that can be imagined.
One drink that is unique to the region is the sübye of Tire, oddly made of melon seeds.
While some of the inland towns might be a little bit more conservative than those on the coast, you are never too far away from a bottle of Efes lager whenever you are thirsty in the region.
Go next
[edit]If the sea, sun, and ancient cities here are not enough, why not moving on southeast to Mediterranean Turkey?