View across the Agora, looking up to the city's ancient citadel atop Panos Hill, now Kadifekale.
Izmir • Day 2
Türkiye
September 20, 2023
Carla discovers the original Smyrna and talks with the archaeologists working there, only to find there is an even older settlement! Later in the day a walk around the Kızlarağası Hanı bazaar, then on to the Asansör, with its panoramic views over Izmir.
While enjoying the classic Turkish breakfast of tea, bread, cheese and olives, I read about Smyrna’s origins.
Its foundation myth was that Alexander the Great, having chased the Persians away, went hunting on Pagos hill. Resting by a temple, he was visited by its goddesses, who told him to move the unhappy people living in around an older Smyrna to the land facing the sea below Pagos, and this would make them happy. So… there is a Smyrna older than the one I had visited yesterday when I stood in the Agora. And it had been moved.
Found it! There’s a small patch of land around the head of the gulf, north of central Izmir called ‘Old Smyrna’ and its a museum. Too far to walk, so grabbed a taxi. Most Turks speak only Turkish; Google Translate is a useful tool here. Two texts later and a view of the digital map and he’s got it: Smyrna Bayraklı Höyüğü – the Smyrna Bayraklı Mound.
Several swishes of the intracity motorway later, slipping between great clumps of new building development, and I was there. I looked for the ticket kiosk, but here entry is free of charge.
Ancient Smyrna
This place is indeed the older Symrna, the one that goes back into the time of ancient Troy, settled by local people long before Ionian Greeks turned up centuries later to made it their own.
Other than a horrendous set of concrete columns that emulate the long gone originals that formed part of the temple to Athena, and the stone walls set around the temple platform, most other buildings reduced to a bare outline of rough stones. It is a bare and desolate place, an island of silence surrounded by the modern world.
Some people were walking around, general staff and a small group who wandered off as I arrived. I was the only visitor. By the time I had scrambled around the remains that could be visited (much is cordoned off), a couple of people were back at one ruin, looking definitely like archaeologists.
Sure enough, they are, part of Izmir’s university faculty and locally sustained program. It was their seasonal dig’s last day; they were prepping for closure until next year.
“What are you excavating?” I asked.
“A house. You can see the stone disc on which stood the central timber post that held up the roof”, the young archaeologist replied. He invited me to stand in the dig – a totally exhilarating feeling for me.
“I love this! I should have been an archaeologist,” I said, “but I needed to earn money”.
“Yes, that hasn’t changed, no money for us doing this.” he ruefully replied. “When I’m not here or studying I love to go canoeing – in fact I’ve made my own.” he continued.
“Just like my father and my brother once did, long ago!” I exclaimed.
At that point the lead archaeologist turned up. I clambered out of the dig and thanked her for letting me ask questions about it. Turns out this is one of the older buildings in the settlement, stone-walled with a high thatched roof, the material likely being reeds from the old shore; the new coast now some 600 meters away.
A receding coast was the fate of many ancient towns along the coast here, leaving several of them many kilometers inland from the modern shoreline. The reason is simple enough: the many rivers that flow into the Aegean brought an abundance of silt with their water; great for irrigation and shallow fishing, but a disaster for shipping.
“Yes, and that silting up was accelerated by the run-off of soil from having cut down the forests to make farming land in the river plains behind the towns.” the lead archaeologist added.
“Do you know the oldest part of Smyrna?” She asked me.
“The area where the first trench was dug here?” I proposed, pointing to the other side of the site.
“No, its just behind that house there,” pointing completely the other way to behind the guardian’s cottage set by the entrance. “What we found there goes back to the early Bronze Age, making it around 3500 years old.”
“You know how the Lydians captured Smyrna?” I was being quizzed…
“No, but I know the Lydian king was the father of the famous Croesus!”
“Alyattes, you mean. The Smyrneans were convinced the Lydians would cross the river and attack the main gate, but they didn’t. They circled around the town and scaled the low walls set atop the steep ravine – behind the low hill there”, pointing to the wooded coppice behind me. “Once over the hill, the Smyrneans were done for. The town was completely wrecked, reducing it to one village among many, with a simple ‘port’ for regional trade. So it continued into the time of Persian rule.”
The legend finds its meaning: what made these people famously unhappy was that Greek Smyrna, conquered by Lydians and crushed by Persians, lost its wealth and influence, and the seashore, once lapping around the western edge of the settlement, had been pushed back as the gulf silted up, making trade more difficult. That’s why Smyrna was moved.
“You know there is an even older settlement near here that is the ‘first’ Smyrna? It’s Neolithic – Stone Age – thousands of years older than this place. Not so far from here.” the lead archaeologist asked me, with a twinkle in her eye.
“No! Where?” I exclaimed. She told me, but that is a visit for another day, the next time I visit Izmir.
Kızlarağası Hanı and Kemeralti
Back in the center of Izmir, I headed to the street market area again (always good for color, life and photos). No sooner than I walked into the northern end of the district, arcades of climbing plants shading the street, than a café waiter came up to me and asked me to take a photo of him. Duly done, he invited me to take a tea at his café. Standing at the counter, a young man working in the prep area asked me to take his photo too. Done. The tea was a delightful refresher.
I quickly found myself at one of the entrances to the covered bazaar, the Kızlarağası Hanı. Here are tourists! A ribbon-waving guide, followed by a straggled gaggle, finishing up with their husbands. The wares are the usual; nothing as enticing as the covered bazaar in Istanbul, but pretty enough to stroll through.
I stepped out from one of the other entrances, finding myself on the same main street in Kemeralti I had walked on Day One. I cut to other streets and alleys in search of some memorable and photographable sights.
Waiting for a street scene to clear, one man with a wheeled kiddie chair on walked up to me. On the seat of the chair sat a box, and on the box sat two rabbits, one white and one black. Sloped against the box, a white wooden board with horizontal grooves cut into it, and a number of colored paper slips pressed into them. I was bemused.
No words exchanged, the man handed me the white board, gesturing me to choose one of the colored papers. I did, then the man presented the board to the white rabbit, indicating it should pick the paper from the board with its teeth. Duly done, the man opened the paper, read out the words and presented it to me to read as confirmation. Which I didn’t understand. A rabbit driven paper fortune cookie! Bizarre! Brilliant! Definitely worth the tip I gave him – as this of course is the purpose of the spectacle. I guess it’s the black rabbit’s turn next time.
Asansör
Several streets along I came to a small square with a central fountain, surrounded by an arched curtain of delicate columns. Stalls lined two sides, and cafés the other two.
Soon enough I came to the square with the Clock Tower and kept on walking, for my goal this time was to visit the Asansör. This tower with elevator (ascenseur) was erected in 1907 by a successful local businessman, Nesim Levi ‘Bayraklioglu’, to complement the many steps and switchback road that lead from the seafront up to streets with houses of the wealthy set into the steep bluff that looks over the sea gulf. Always free of charge to use, the Asansör is now a tourist destination in its own right, with a great panoramic view over Izmir. I’m sure sea captains and shipowners would have loved living in this part of of the city.
You will read that the café situated on the Asansör’s deck is great. The view is. The café isn’t. No menu, no prices. You have to download an app. No way. The cafés and bars set along the alley leading up to the Asansör are better (menus, prices, service), and most likely cheaper. Plus the street wall art is a treat.
All done for the day, with yet another long walk back along the seafront promenade, then up the wide street to my hotel.
Tomorrow I set off for Selçuk, knowing full well I have to return to Izmir one day to see some places of interest I didn’t manage in these two days: the neolithic settlement, the main city museum, the acropolis on Kadifekale, the ancient gateway and bridge at Yesildere, the Tomb of Tantalus.
One gentleman taking in the late afternoon sun as he sits on the sea breakers fronting Izmir's long promenade.