View across the Agora, looking up to the city's ancient citadel atop Panos Hill, now Kadifekale.
Izmir • Day 1
Türkiye
September 19, 2023
Carla visits Izmir for the first time, to explore its intriguing mix of contemporary and historic architecture: the ancient Agora, the bazaar district of Kemeralti, the Konak Mosque and Clock Tower, wrapping up with a long walk along Izmir’s modern seafront and wide avenues.
I have visited, lived and worked in Türkiye; this is the first time I visit Izmir. Located directly on the Aegean Sea, Izmir is Türkiye’s third largest city, arcing right around the dark green sea-gulf by which it sits, facing the Greek island of Chios.
I flew in of an evening, the city’s lights winking below as the plane circled round to the airport. For once I was sensible and grabbed a city taxi to the hotel I had pre-booked. Lots of traffic coursing down wide boulevards, traffic lights blazing their colors the length of LED lit poles – what a clever idea!
Turns out the hotel I chose is very well situated; I was able to walk to most everywhere I wanted to see. When it is time to leave the main train station is just around the corner.
Today’s Izmir is a modern city of broad streets and flyovers, an eclectic mix of building styles that date from the last years of the 1800s to the mid 1970s, with gigantic dollops of modern blocs and towers that stretch far away to the horizon. In amongst all this, the occasional stump or thick brick wall of something much older.
The following morning, having enjoyed a traditional Turkish breakfast of tea, bread, cheese and olives, and with digital map in hand, I headed out to discover the city, freshly presented in a bright sun and brisk wind.
First target: the Agora! What, a Greek thing in a Turkish city? Indeed so, because Izmir was once Smyrna, an ancient place, in its time indigenous then part of the Greek Ionian community, taken by Anatolian kingdom of Lydia, by the Persians and after them Alexander’s and his heirs, eventually landing up as subject to the Roman, Byzantine and finally the Ottoman Empires. This place has deep roots. Several streets and I was there, entry ticket in hand.
The Agora
The Agora was, of course, the heart of Smyrna, one road leading from its great porticoed square to the port; another to the city’s acropolis set atop the high hill that sits further inland, now called Kadifekale but then Pagos; others heading out to towns that are famous in history: Ephesos, Miletus, Pergamon.
But for a row of re-erected columns, not much stands in the Agora. Over the millennia this whole region has been constantly wracked by earthquakes, invasions, settlement of different peoples, the impact of religion and the inevitable ‘recycling’ of building materials. Most memorable about the Agora now is what lies below – great vaults that still support the raised and levelled platform on which the Agora’s buildings were erected, and through which the water channelled into courses that were laid over 2000 years ago still flows to serve this part of the city.
Kemeralti
Leaving the Agora precinct I walked by the high, ruined walls of what was the main city thermae, crossed the main road and walked into Kemeralti, Izmir’s bazaar district and the world’s largest open air market.
Kemeralti overlays the old Smyrna that covered the land from the Agora to the old harbor. Nowadays the streets are fairly broad and full of people shopping for everything from prestige jewelry to fresh figs. It is a great place to wander through, because here you can find the street restaurants and eateries, the tea gardens and stalls selling fresh fruit juice.
The Clock Tower
While meandering through the streets, I eventually found myself in a square that leads to the seashore. To the land side stands the clean cut octagonal Konak Mosque; in the middle of the square, dense with pigeons and tourists, Izmir’s deliciously ornate Clock Tower. This was designed in 1901 by the French architect/engineer Raymond Péré. At that time the Ottoman government was industrializing, with the French doing much of the work in building transport infrastructure (many Turkish words related to transport and civil engineering are taken directly from French), and the Germans deep into modernizing the military.
The Seafront Promenade
Today’s seafront has been sculpted into a series of wide, curving promenades, with quays for ferries to whisk you to points along the sea-gulf, and plenty of cafés and retail points set into the several piers jutting into the sea. The largest of them, Konak Pier, was designed by Gustave Eiffel.
A hundred years ago the seafront was renowned for the great mansions that adorned the landward side. These belonged to Smyrna’s moneyed and privileged merchants – Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Syrians and others who made it good here. All swept away, along with the merchants and much of the townspeople, in the wake of a disastrous Greek campaign to capture the Aegean coast of Turkey during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire straight after World War One. Smyrna was gone, replaced by Izmir.
Today many people walk along the long seafront in the late afternoon and evening with not a care in the world, as of course did I, to enjoy the strong sea breeze and see the life around me. Lots of young people!
One gentleman taking in the late afternoon sun as he sits on the sea breakers fronting Izmir's long promenade.