Izmir is Turkey's third-largest city — 4.4 million people on the Aegean coast, on the deep Bay of Izmir, where the Gediz River empties into the sea. Izmir is the ancient Smyrna (Σμύρνα) — one of the Seven Churches of Asia mentioned in the Book of Revelation (the letter to Smyrna is the shortest and most positive of the seven: 'I know your afflictions and your poverty — yet you are rich'); a Greek city from at least the 11th century BCE, captured by Alexander the Great (who refounded it on the slopes of Mount Pagos in 334 BCE after a dream in which Nemesis appeared to him), ruled by the Romans (the Agora of Smyrna — the market square — is among the best-preserved Roman agoras in Turkey), and a major Ottoman and international trade port until 1922 (when the Great Fire of Smyrna destroyed 70% of the city during the Greco-Turkish War, killing tens of thousands). Modern Izmir is Turkey's most cosmopolitan and liberal city after Istanbul — with a strong café culture, the Kordon waterfront promenade (the most pleasant coastal promenade in Turkey), the Kemeraltı Bazaar (the 17th-century covered bazaar), and the gateway to Ephesus (80km south — the best-preserved Roman city in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Best months: April–June and September–October.
Kemeraltı (کمرالتی — the historic bazaar district of Izmir, established in the Ottoman period (17th century) and continuously in operation; an organic network of covered arcades (the bedestan — the central cloth market hall, now selling textiles and jewellery), open streets, hans (caravanserais — Ottoman merchant inns with a courtyard), and specialist sections (the bookbinders' street, the smiths' quarter, the herbalists, the spice stalls, and the gold jewellery shops of Anafartalar Caddesi)). The centerpiece: the Kızlarağası Han (Kızlarağası Hanı — the 1744 caravanserai built by the chief eunuch (kızlarağası) of the Ottoman court, with 28 rooms around a courtyard with a central fountain and an Ottoman fountain house (çeşme); now a commercial complex with artisan shops on the ground floor and a roof terrace).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAgora of Smyrna (Smyrna Agorası — Agora Street, Namazgah; the ruins of the Hellenistic and Roman market square of ancient Smyrna; the current excavated state (ongoing since 1932) shows the 2nd-century CE Roman reconstruction commissioned by Emperor Marcus Aurelius after the earthquake of 178 CE destroyed the Hellenistic agora; the preserved elements: the north stoa (a covered colonnade 165m long with Corinthian columns, the most photogenic element), the vaulted basement (the underground storage rooms beneath the north stoa — 30 vaulted chambers in which Ionic columns and statues of Poseidon and Demeter have been found), and fragments of the Hellenistic walls predating the Roman reconstruction). Smyrna was the city where the philosopher Apollonius of Tyana taught and where the martyred Bishop Polycarp was burned alive (155 CE). Adults ₺200 (~€5.50).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBoyoz (בויוס — the definitive Izmir food: a flaky, unleavened pastry made with olive oil, sesame tahini, and a trace of fenugreek, baked in a round coil; a recipe introduced to Izmir by the Sephardic Jewish community (who brought it from their original Spanish home — the word is from the Spanish 'bollo', a bread roll) after 1492, when the Spanish expulsion of Jews sent tens of thousands to Ottoman territories; Izmir had one of the largest Sephardic communities in the world in the 17th–19th centuries; boyoz with a hard-boiled egg is the classic Izmir breakfast, available from 06:00 at bakeries throughout the city). Midye Dolma (midye — mussels; dolma — stuffed: Aegean mussels stuffed with spiced rice (rice, currants, pine nuts, dill, cinnamon, allspice), served cold, opened with a mussel-shell scoop; ₺5–8 per mussel from mobile street vendors on the Kordon (the most casual and delicious Izmir street food experience)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideKordon (Birinci Kordon — the 3km waterfront promenade running along the bay from the Clock Tower (Saat Kulesi, 1901, a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II to Sultan Abdülhamid II; an ornate Ottoman-Baroque tower that is the most recognisable landmark of Izmir's city centre) to the Alsancak district; the most pleasant urban seafront in Turkey: a wide paved promenade with palm trees, outdoor café terraces (every major café chain and most of Izmir's best independent cafés have a Kordon location), and a view across the bay to the Burdur mountains and the Çeşme peninsula). The Kordon is the social centre of Izmir — the city's liberal, secular identity is visible here in the outdoor café culture, the bookshops, and the mixed-gender evening social life that distinguishes Izmir from the more conservative Anatolian interior.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAsansör (Elevator — Necatibey Street, Karataş; a historic passenger elevator built in 1907 by the Jewish merchant Nesim Levi Bayraklıoğlu to connect the Karataş (Karatash) hillside neighbourhood (the historic Sephardic Jewish Quarter of Izmir) to the Halkapınar district below; the elevator (a single-shaft hydraulic lift) has been restored and is now a tourist attraction with a restaurant and bar at the top (the Asansör Restaurant — the finest view of the bay in Izmir, with the city lights and the Aegean at night). Karataş below the elevator: the remaining historic houses of the Jewish Quarter (late Ottoman villas with wooden bay windows (cumba) in the style that Izmir shared with Thessaloniki before both cities' Jewish communities were destroyed in the 20th century).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideTCDD train from Izmir Basmane Station to Selçuk (the town adjacent to the Ephesus ruins; trains depart 08:00, 09:00, 11:00; journey 1 hour; ₺30 (€0.80)); the village of Selçuk (15km from Ephesus) has: the Ephesus Museum (the essential pre-visit for Ephesus: the statues found in the terraced houses (the Artemis of Ephesus — the multi-breasted fertility goddess statue (the 'breasts' may actually be bull testicles — a sacrificial offering)), the bronze athlete, and the Pollio Fountain reliefs); the Basilica of St John (a 6th-century Byzantine basilica built over the tomb of John the Apostle by Justinian I; the ruins show the scale of what was one of the great pilgrimage churches of Byzantium)). Adults €8 (museum + Basilica combo).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideEphesus (Efes — Efes Yolu, 3km from Selçuk; UNESCO World Heritage Site; the largest archaeological site in Turkey and the best-preserved Roman city in the world (the preserved state (the theatre, the library, the colonnaded streets, the latrines) is more complete than Pompeii in its urban form, though less frozen-in-time); ancient Ephesus (population 250,000 at its peak in the 1st–2nd century CE) was the capital of the Roman province of Asia, one of the most important cities in the ancient world, and the city where Paul of Tarsus taught for three years (52–55 CE), where Mary Magdalene is said to have died (a tradition without documentary evidence), and where the original Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) stood before it was destroyed (a single column remains in a field 1.5km from the main site)). Key sites: the Library of Celsus (the 2nd-century facade, the most photographed single element in Turkey), the Grand Theatre (capacity 24,000, still acoustically functional), and the Terrace Houses (preserved Roman residential buildings with mosaic floors and fresco walls, extra entry €20). Adults €30.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideTemple of Artemis (Artemision — 1.5km from the Ephesus main entrance; the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: a single marble column (one of the 127 original Ionic columns of the 3rd-century BCE temple) stands in a field; the original temple was 115m × 55m, with columns 19m high — four times larger than the Parthenon; destroyed by a Gothic raid (267 CE) and stripped for building material for the Hagia Sophia). House of the Virgin Mary (Meryemana — 7km from Ephesus, on a forested hillside; a shrine containing a small stone house traditionally identified as the house where Mary lived out her life after leaving Jerusalem; the identification is based on the visions of the German mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824), whose descriptions of the house's location led to an 1891 expedition that found the ruins; the site is visited by both Christian pilgrims and Muslim visitors (Islam reveres Maryam)). Entry ₺600 (~€16).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideReturn train from Selçuk to Izmir Basmane (hourly departures, 1 hour, ₺30). Alsancak (the entertainment district of Izmir — the grid of streets north of the Clock Tower, with the highest concentration of bars, restaurants, and live music venues in the city; the streets of Kıbrıs Şehitleri Caddesi and 1453 Sokak have the most active evening scene). Izmir specialities for the evening: Lokma (a street food event — deep-fried dough balls soaked in sweet syrup, traditionally prepared in large vats at neighbourhood celebrations and distributed free to passers-by — if you encounter a lokma event on the street, the custom is to eat a few and say a prayer for the soul of whoever the event is dedicated to). Craft beer: Izmir has the strongest craft beer scene outside Istanbul, with several taprooms in Alsancak.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideKadifekale (Kadife Kale — 'Velvet Castle'; the Byzantine/Ottoman hilltop fortress on Mount Pagos, 186m above the city (the same hill where Alexander the Great refounded Smyrna in 334 BCE after his dream, and where the original Hellenistic city walls ran); the fortress (current walls mostly Byzantine, 4th–14th century, with Ottoman additions) offers the widest panoramic view in Izmir: the bay, the Kemeraltı below, the Karşıyaka district on the opposite shore, and on clear days the islands of Chios (Greece) visible across the Aegean. The hilltop neighbourhood (Kadifekale district) is one of the oldest continuously inhabited areas of Izmir — a dense, working-class neighbourhood with tea houses (çay bahçesi) where old men play backgammon and the view is free. Minibus from Konak Pier: ₺15 (€0.40).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBergama (ancient Pergamon — 105km north of Izmir by bus (Bus from Izmir Otogar (main bus station), ₺100, 1.5 hours); a UNESCO World Heritage Site 2014; the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon (241–133 BCE), a Hellenistic successor state of Alexander's empire that became the most sophisticated court in Asia Minor: the Library of Pergamon (second only to the Library of Alexandria in the ancient world, with 200,000 volumes — it was so competitive with Alexandria that Egypt stopped exporting papyrus, leading Pergamon to develop parchment (pergamentum — named for the city)); the Acropolis (the upper city on a 335m hill, with: the Trajaneum (the best-preserved Roman temple in Anatolia, a 2nd-century white marble temple to Emperor Trajan, partially reconstructed); the Altar of Zeus (the original altar, now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin (removed by German archaeologists in 1878–1886) — the surviving foundation and colonnade are visible in situ); and the Theatre (a 10,000-seat theatre on the steepest hillside in antiquity, with a 80° viewing angle)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAsclepion of Pergamon (Asclepeion — below the Pergamon Acropolis; the most important healing sanctuary in the ancient world, dedicated to Asclepius (the god of medicine)); the Asclepion was the largest therapeutic centre of the 2nd century CE Roman world: patients (pilgrims seeking cures) slept in the incubation hall (the kline — the patient slept on the ground, and the god appeared in their dreams to prescribe a cure; the priest-physicians then interpreted the dream and applied the treatment); the treatments included mud baths, herbal drinks, water immersion, fasting, exercise, and theatre performances (the 3,500-seat theatre on the Asclepion site was part of the therapy — the belief that mental and spiritual health could be restored by cultural experience). The physician Galen (129–216 CE — the most influential physician in Western history after Hippocrates, whose medical theories dominated European medicine for 1,400 years) trained here. Entry included in Pergamon ticket.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideReturn bus to Izmir (₺100, 1.5 hrs). Meze dinner on the Kordon: Turkish meze (the extensive spread of cold and hot small dishes served before the main course in a Turkish restaurant — the equivalent of Spanish tapas or Greek mezedes): haydari (thick strained yogurt with garlic and dried mint), patlıcan salatası (smoky aubergine and yogurt puree), sigara böreği (fried cigar-shaped pastry with feta and parsley), zeytinyağlı enginar (artichoke hearts cooked in olive oil with dill and lemon), and the essential rakı (Turkish anise-distilled spirit, drunk diluted with cold water (which turns it milky white — 'lion's milk' (aslan sütü)) and accompanied by meze; the national drink of secular Turkey). Kordon restaurants: Veli Usta's Balık Restaurant or any of the Kordon terraces, meze spread ₺300–500 (€8–14) per person without rakı.
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