Izmir / Turkey

Izmir, the third largest city of Turkey, is located on the shore of the gulf of the same name. That the area where the city is located was inhabited since 3000s B.C. was revealed as a result of the excavations at the Tepe Kule Tumulus near Bayrakli. The name of the city is originally "Swmaurna", meaning the "Place of the Sacred Mother." In ancient Lydia this name was later changed into Smyrna. This tumulus which was a small settlement by the seaside grew with the influx of those returning from the Trojan War, the relations with the Hittites, maritime trading and the Temple of Sacred Mother. In Bayrakli, settlement places, megaron type houses and the city surrounded by walls built of sun-dried bricks from this period were revealed. Homeros, the worldwide renowned historian and philosopher of the antiquity, is the most important of the eminent figures from Izmir. The ancient Izmir which was laid waste by the Lydian King Alyattes in 600 B.C. first became a dependency of Sardes, then was taken by the Persians followed by the Macedonians. During the Macedonian era it started urbanizing on the foothills of Pagos/ Kadifekale and during the era of Lysimachos it was surrounded with walls all around. The city which subsequently fel under the hegemonies of Seleucus, Pergamum and Rome sustained extensive damages during the earthquake in 178 A.D. and was rebuilt with the aid of the Emperor Marcusaurelius. The city where an episcopal church was built upon the remains of the Temple of the Mother Goddess during the Byzantine era was destroyed during the Arab invasions in the 7th century and conquered by Turkmenoglu QakaBeyin 1081. The area was annexed to the Ottoman lands in 1390 and became a major center of trade, izmir which was occupied by Hellenes on May 15,1919 was rescued after an unparallelled resistance and campaign on September 9,1922.

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