İZMİR

İZMİR
izmir, the Greek Smyrna, is the third largest city in Turkey after İstanbul and Ankara, it is far and away the most important port on the Aegean coast of Turkey, located at the head of the Gulf of izmir, one of the best natural harbors in the Levant. The city has now spread out for miles around the head of the gulf on both sides of its historic center, the area under Kadifekale, the acropolis hill known to the Greeks as Mt. Pagus. This is the oldest quarter of İzmir, the site of its famous Bazaar and of its historic monuments. But despite its antiquity this is not where the city had its begin-nings.
Archaeological excavations in 1948-51 by Professors John M. Cook and Ekrem Akurgal shovved the original site of Smyrna was at Bayrakli, at the northeast corner of the gulf some two miles from the city center. The excavations indicate that the site at Bayraklı was inhabited as early as the first half of the third millennium B.C., the oldest strata of the settlement being contemporary with Troy 1 and 2. Virtually nothing is knovvn of the original inhabitants of Smyrna. Strabo writes that ancient authorities attributed the found-ing of Smyrna to the Amazons. He also says that when the first Greeks arrived they found the place occupied by the Lelegians, another non-Hellenic people who inhabited western Anatolia be-fore the migration of the Aeolians and lonians. The excavations at Bayraklı revealed that the earliest Hellenic settlers arrived here in the tenth century B.C., as evidenced by the large quantities of proto-geometric pottery of that pcriod unearthed in the dig. These colonists were presumably Aeolian Greeks, since Smyrna was origi-nally one of the cities of the Aeolian League. The excavations also unearthed houses dating from the ninth to the seventh century B.C., as well as an archaic temple of Athena, originally built ca. 640 B.C., which Professor Akurgal describes as "the earliest and finest building of the eastern Greek vvorld in Asiâ Minör." The temple


would have been erected by the Ionians, who in the second half of the eighth century B.C. seized control of Smyrna from the Aeolians. According to Herodotus, this coup was carried out by a group of exiles from the Ionian city of Colophon, as he telis the story in Book I of his Histories:
The Aeolians lost Smyrna by treachery. They had received into the town some men from Colophon, who had been defeated by the rival faction and expelled; the fugitives watched their chance and, when the people of Smyrna were celebrating a festival of Dionysus outside the walls, shut Üıe gates and got possession of the town. The Aeolians of the oüıer states came to their help, and terms were agreed to vvhereby the Ionians should surrender ali moveable property but keep posses­sion of the town. The people of Smyrna were then distributed amongst the other eleven Aeolian towns, where they were given civic rights.
Around 665 B.C. King Gyges of Lydia invaded the territory of the Ionians, putting Smyrna under siege, but the townspeople fought off the invaders. The Lydians returned in 600 B.C, when King Alyattes invaded Ionia and took Smyrna, destroying the city and dispersing the survivors, some of whom took refuge in the Ionian city of Clazomenae. During the two decades that followed some of the Smyrnaeans returned to the ruined city and rebuilt their houses. The excavations at Bayraklı indicate that by 500 B.C. they had restored the temple of Athena. But the archaic city of Smyrna never again recovered its former stature, and during the classical period it was little more than a collection of villages at the northeastern corner of the gulf. Then the original site vvas abandoned altogether at the beginning of the Hellenistic period, when a new city vvas built under Mt. Pagus.
The founding of the new city of Smyrna vvas attributed to Alexander the Great, according to Pausanias and other ancient sources. As Pausanias telis the tale, Alexander vvas out hunting on Mt. Pagus vvhen he fell asleep under a plane tree sacred to the Vengeances, the goddesses of divine fate and retribution. The god-
desses appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to build a nevv city on the site and to resettle the Smyrnaeans there. When Alexander's dream vvas reported to the Smyrnaeans they sent a delegation to the oracle of Apollo at Claros, vvho responded vvith this cryptic couplet: "Three and four times happy shall these men be hereafter/Who shall dvvell on Pagus beyond the sacred Meles." The oracle vvas here referring to the River Meles, vvhich flows into the head of the gulf north of Mt. Pagus. The Smyrnaeans thus accepted the oracle's advice and abandoned the site at Bayraklı, building a nevv city south of the Meles on the seavvard slope of Mt. Pagus, or so the story goes.
Putting the story in historical perspective, Alexander may in fact have made a brief visit to Smyrna in the spring of 334 B.C, perhaps on his vvay from Sardis to Ephesus. But even if Alexander did decide to relocate and rebuild Smyrna then, there vvould have been no time for him to do so on his rapid campaign, and the plan could only have been carried out after his death in 323 B.C. by his
successors. The foundation of the new city on Mt. Pagus may have been begun by Antigonus before his death in 301 B.C., but in any event tlıe project vvas completed by Lysimachus, probably after his conquest of Ephesus in 295 B.C The climax of this resettlement came in 288 B.C, when Smyraa was made the thirteenth member of the nevvly revived Panionic League, the confederation of the lonian cities originally founded in the archaic period.
The most detailed descriplion of the Graeco-Roman city on the slope of Mt. Pagus is that given by Aelius Aristides, who vvas born in Mysia ca. A.D. 117 and died in 181, having lived mudi of his life in Smyrna. One of the edifices mentioned by Aristides in his description of Smyrna is a temple knovvn as "Dionysus Before the City," which is believed to have stood on a hill near the southern gate, from vvhere a road led to Ephesus. This vvould have been the shrine of "Dionysus outside the vvalls" mentioned by Herodotus in his story of the lonian capture of Smyrna. Another incident associ-ated with this shrine occurred in 244 B.C, when Smyrna vvas at-tacked by a fleet from Chios. On that day the entire population of Smyrna had göne out to celebrate the festival of Dionysus at the god's shrine outside the vvalls, vvhen some of them spotted the Chian triremes sailing up the gulf tovvards the city. After the alarm vvas given the men of Smyrna rushed dovvn to the shore to repel the Chians, defeating them and capturing some of their ships, after vvhich they returned in triumph to the temple of Dionysus to con-tinue the festival. The victory vvas commemorated throughout the remainder of antiquity at the annual festival of Dionysus. A group of ephebes carried one of the captured Chian triremes to the vvine god's temple outside the vvalls, the high priest of the cult acting as helmsman.
Another sanctuary in Smyrna mentioned by Aristides and other ancient sources is the Homerium, a heroon dedicated to Homer. There vvas a strong tradition among vvriters in antiquity that Homer vvas born in Smyrna, by the banks of the river Meles, though later he dvvelt in other places, most notably Chios. Pausanias vvrites that "Smyrna has the river Meles vvith the finest vvater, and a cave vvith

a spring vvhere they say Homer vvrote his poetry." Aristides gives a description of the course of the Meles through Smyrna that has led a number of scholars to identify it vvith the Halkpınar Suyu, re-cently renamed the Melez Çayı, a stream that rises from a spring-fed pool vvithin the grounds of the izmir vvater supply station. This pool is knovvn popularly as "Diana's Baths," because of the discov-ery there of a statue of Artemis, the Roman Diana. Beneath the tree-shaded vvaters of the pool one can see several Ionic column bases and other ancient architectural fragments, possibly the rem-nants of a sanctuary of Artemis. Perhaps this is the pool referred to in one of the Homeric Hymns to Artemis, vvhere the divine hunt-ress "having vvashed her horses in deep-reeded Meles, drove svviftly through Smyrna to Claros deep in vines." An inscription found in the spring, novv built into Burnabat Camii, reads: "I sing the praises of the Meles, my saviour, novv that every plague and evil has ceased." This is believed to refer to a plague that ravaged the city in the years A.D. 165-68, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The curative vvaters of the spring seem to have been credited vvith end-ing the epidemic.
The best vievv of the historic center of the city is from Kadifekale, the ancient fortress on the summit of Mt. Pagus. The summit is to a large extent surrounded by the vvalls and tovvers of Kadifekale, the Velvet Castle, stili formidable looking even in its ruins. The citadel on Mt. Pagus vvas the focal point of the city's defenses, vvith tvvo lines of massive vvalls leading dovvn from there to the shore. The eavvard vvalls have vanished, and ali that remains of the fortifica-tions is the citadel on Mt. Pagus. Even there only the foundations and perhaps a few of the lovver courses date from the time of Lysimachus, vvith the remainder ovving to successive reconstruc-tions by the Romans, Byzantines and Ottoman Turks.
Hellenistic Smyrna existed as an independent city from the time of its foundation by Lysimachus until 129 B.C, vvhen it vvas in-cluded in the Roman Province of Asia. Then in 27 B.C, vvhen Octavian became Augustus, Smyrna vvas made part of a nevv Ro­man federation knovvn as the League of Asia, governed by a pro-
consul sent out annually from Rome. Smyrna enjoyed three centu-ries of peace and prosperity under the mantle of tiıe pax Romana, but Üıen in A.D. 178 the city was devastated by the vvorst earth-quake in its history. Aristides had left Smyrna a few days before, by divine guidance, he said, and when he leamed of the catastrophe he wrote to Marcus Aurelius. The emperor wept when he read the letter and gave orders for the work of reconstruction to begin at önce. Within three years Smyrna had been completely restored. The Smyrnaeans were deeply grateful for this help, and in com-memoration they erected statues of Marcus Aurelius and Aristides in the rebuilt theater.
By then there were already a substantial number of Christians living in Smyrna. Smyrna was one of the Seven Churches of Rev-elation. The Christian community in the city received this cryptic message from St. John the Evangelist:
I know thy vvorks and tribulations, and poverty (but thou an rich), and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the Smyrna synagogue of Satan. Fear none of these things which thou shall suffer: behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that we may be tried: and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear. let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches: he that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.
The first bishop of Smyrna was St. Polycarp, who is said to have been consecrated by St. John the Apostle in the last years of the first Christian century. Bishop Eirenaios. writing ca. 190, re-membered Polycarp well from the days of his youth in Smyrna, reminiscing of "how he had told me of his association with John and the rest who had seen the Lord: and as he remembered their words, and what he had heard from fhem about the Lord and about His deeds and povver and about His teachings." Eirenaios goes on to teli of how "Polycarp used to narrate everything in conformity with the Scriptures—as one who had received the story from the

eyevvitness of the life of the world." Polycarp served as Bishop of Smyrna for more than half a century, leading me Christian commu­nity here until 22 February 153, when he suffered martyrdom for his faith. He was bumed at the stake in the stadium on orders of the Roman proconsul, L. Statius Quadratus.
Despite further persecution, the Christian community in Smyrna continued to grow in numbers throughout the late Roman era, and when Constantine the Great convened the first ecumenical council of the church at Nicaea in 325 the Smyrnaeans were represented by their bishop. During the sixth century the city was elevated to the level of a metropolis in the Greek Orthodox Church. Smyrna re-tained the title of metropolis throughout the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, though the city changed hands repeatedly in the course of its turbulent history during those eras. The lower city of Smyrna was overrun during the first two Arab invasions of Asia Minör, in 654 and 674-78. On both occasions the citadel on Mt. Pagus held out until the invaders, the dreaded Saracens, had göne. The citadel was captured in 1078 by the Selçuks under Prince Süleyman. Smyrna then remained in the hands of the Turks until it was recaptured by the Byzantines in 1097, at the beginning of the First Crusade.
A new era in the history of the city began in 1261, when Michael VIII Palaeologus (r. 1259-82) entered into an alliance with the Genoese, formalized in the Treaty of Nymphaeum. By the terms of the treaty, the emperor granted the Genoese extensive concessions in the Byzantine Empire, including full control of Smyrna, "a city fit for commercial use, having a good port and abounding in ali goods." The Genoese retained Smyrna until 1310, when the citadel was taken from them by Umur Bey, Emir of Aydın, vvhich was then the capital of a Türkmen beylik in vvestern Asia Minör. Pope Clement VI then appointed Martino Zaccaria as captain of a flotilla of four papal galleys, which he led into the Gulf of Smyrna in December 1344 to recapture the Castle of St. Peter, the city's prin-ipal markime fortress. This allovved him to take the lower city of myrna, vvhile Umur Bey held out in the citadel. Then on 7 January f the new year, when the Roman Catholic arehbishop of Smyrna
was celebrating a thanksgiving mass in the cathedral, a group of armed Turks broke in and captured Zaccaria, bringing his severed head back to Umur Bey as a trophy of revenge. The Türkmen of the Aydın beylik continued to hold the citadel until the beginning of the fifteenth century, while the Christians remained in control of the Castle of St. Peter and the lower town. Thus it came to be that the citadel was known to the Turks as "Müslim İzmir," while the lovver town was called "Gâvur (Infidel) İzmir." During the mid-fourteenth century the Castle of St. Peter and the lovver town came under the control of the Knights of St. John, vvhose headquarters vvas then on Rhodes. The knights held their part of Smyrna until December 1402, vvhen Tamerlane captured the city after a tvvo-week siege, driving the Christian survivors from the lovver city. Shortly aftervvards Tamerlane returned to the East, leaving full con­trol of İzmir to the Emir of Aydın. But then a rival Turkish chief-tain named Cüneyt Bey rebelled and captured the city along vvith considerable territory in its hinterland. Smyrna remained in Cüneyt's hands until 1415, vvhen the city vvas captured by the Ottoman Turks under Mehmet I (r. 1413-21). Cüneyt managed to regain control of İzmir in 1422, but tvvo years later he vvas captured and executed by Murat II (r. 1421-51). İzmir then became a permanent part of the Ottoman Empire, vvith the Turks defeating an attempt by the Vene-tians to capture the city in 1473.
When Murat II regained İzmir it vvas in ruins and virtually abandoned, but the rise of the Ottoman Empire revived the city's fortunes, and soon it became Turkey's second most important port after istanbul.' During the reign of Süleyman the Magnifıcent (r. 1520-66) the Turks began granting commercial concessions to Eu-ropean povvers in order to develop the foreign trade of the Ottoman Empire. Murat III (r. 1574-95) vvrote to Queen Elizabeth I in en-couragement of this trade, assuring her that he had signed a firman, or imperial directive, vvhich safeguarded any of her representatives "as shall resort hither by sea from the realm of England," vvho "may lavvfully come to our imperial dominions, and surely return home again, and no man shall dare to molest or trouble them." The

Sultan also informed the Queen that the English vvould have the same commercial privileges as "our familiars and confederates, the French, Venetians, Polonians, and the King of Germany, vvith divers other neighbors about us." and they vvould have the right to "use and trade ali kinds of merchandisc as any other Christians, vvithout any let or disturbance of any." This led to the incorporation of a group of English merchant adventurers called the Levant Com-pany, also called üıe "Company of Turkey Merchants," vvho in September 1581 vvere given a seven-year charter by the Sultan vvhich enabled them to set up trading stations in İzmir and istanbul. The principal products exported from Turkey by the English and other foreign merchants in Turkey vvere figs, currants, carpets and coffee, the latter commodity being introduced to Europe for the first time through this trade. Thus Smyrna and its hinterland be­came very prosperous, and in the first half of the eighteenth cen­tury the population rose to around 100,000, as high as it had been in the imperial Roman era. The English antiquarian Richard Pococke, vvho visited İzmir in 1739, estimated the population to include 84.000 Turks, 8,000 Greeks, 6,000 Jevvs and 2,000 Armenians. Besides these there vvere probably several hundred European merr chants, vvho vvere knovvn locally as "factors." The most numerous and influential factors vvere those of the Levant Company, vvho vvere supported by an English consul appointed by the Crovvn. Richard Chandler vvho first visited the city in 1764, gives a vivid description of the rich ethnic mixture in Infidel İzmir, as he vvrites:
Smyma continues a large and flourishing city. The bay, besides nu­merous small craft, is daily frequented by ships of burden from the chief ports of Europe, and the factors, vvho are a respectable body, at önce live in affluence and acquire fortunes. The conflux at Smyma of various nations, differing in dress, in manners, in language, and in religion, is very considerable. The Turks occupy by far the greater part of the tovvn. The other tribes live in separate quarters. The protestants and Roman catholics have their chapels, the Jevvs a syna-gogue or tvvo; the Armenians a large and handsome church, vvith a



Street Scene in Ottoman Smyrna (İzmir), Allom PrUıt
burying ground by it. The Greeks, before the fire, had two churches...
Chandler then goes on to write of how the European merchants generally chose their wives from the Christian minorities, particu-arly the Greeks, vvhose colorful costumes contrasted dramatically ith those of the Turkish women of İzmir.
The factors, and other Europeans settled at Smyrna, generally inter-marry with the Greeks, or with natives of the same religion. Their ladies wear the oriental dress, consisüng of large trowsers or breeches, which reach to the anele; long vests of rich silk, or of velvet, lined in winter with costly furs; and around their waist an embroidered zone, vvith elasps of silver or gold. Their hair is plaited, and descends down the back, often in great profusion. The girls have sometimes about twenty thick tresses, besides two or three encircling the head, as a coronet, and set off vvith flovvers, and plumes of feathers, pearls, or jevvels. They commonly stain it of a ehestnut color, vvhich is the most desired. Their apparel and carriage are alike antique. it is remarkable that the trowsers are mentioned in a fragment by Sappho. The habit is light, loose, and cool, adapted to the elimate. When they visit each other they put över their heads a thin transparent veil of muslin, vvith a border of gold tissue. A janizary vvalks before, and tvvo or more handmaidens follovv them through the streets. When assembled, they are seen reclining in various attitudes, or sitting cross-legged on a sofa. Girls of inferior rank from the islands, especially Tinos, abound; and are many of them as beautiful in person, as picturesque in appear-ance. They excel in a glovv of color, vvhich seems the effect of a vvarm sun, ripening the human body as it vvere into an uncommon perfec-tion. The vvomen of the Turks, and of some other nations, are kept carefully concealed; and vvhen they go out, are vvrapped in vvhite linen, vvear boots, and have their faces muffled.
The beauty of the city's setting and its fine elimate are de-seribed by William J. Hamilton, vvho first landed in İzmir on 31 October 1835:


After another stormy night we entered the Gulf of Srayrna, at 6 A.M., passing under the bold bluff headland of Cape Karabournou (Black Nose). As we advanced we were slruck with the beauty of the moun-tain scenery on the southern shore. Steep and vvooded hills rise abruptly from the sea, covered with evergreens and wild pear trees; the latter when in bloom, as I aftervvards saw them in the spring, giving a gay appearance to the mountain side. Higher up the gulf the mountain range attains an elevation of nearly 3000 feet in tvvo remarkable hills, which have received the appellation of the Two Brothers, and form a conspicuous object from Smyrna, vvhere their clear or clouded appear­ance is looked upon as a certain prognostic of fine or foul weather....But Smyrna must be seen to be understood; the soft Ionian climate must be fek before it can be appreciated; and with the change which has of late taken place in the Turkish character, a residence in Smyrna or its neighbourhood would be as free from alarms as any part of Italy or Spain: indeed, I might say, much more so. There is an exquisite soft-ness in the air of this climate at the commencement of spring, when the ground is enamelled with flowers, of vvhich no description can convey an idea. But 1 must not anticipate; we are stili in the middle of winter; and a most severe one it proves to be.
Hamilton then goes on to describe the Bazaar of İzmir, sur-passed in Turkey only by the famous Covered Market in istanbul, which in his time it rivalled not only in the number and variety of objects sold there but also in the ethnic diversity of those who frequented it; as he vvrites:
in modern Smyrna, the objects most deserving of attention are the bazaars, vvhich, though inferior to those of Constantinople, are in some respects more remarkable. Goods of different kinds are sold in different parts, arranged in vvooden booths spread över a large extent of ground. The narrow road or path between them is covered in, and sometimes boarded under foot. At night ıhey are regularly locked up and guarded by vvatchmen. One long row of booths is occupied by the sellers of dried fruits, where baskets of raisins, figs, dates, apricots
and plums are arranged in inviting piles; vvhilst a neighbouring gallery is occupied by shops, solely devoted to the manufacture of wooden drums or boxes in vvhich the fıgs of Smyrna are sent to Europe. in another part are the bazaars for ancient arms, matchlocks, yataghans, and pistols, vvith other curiosities, and objects of vı'rfu. Pipes are sold in another quarter, and one gallery, called the English bazaar, is occu­pied by cotton goods, and printed calicoes chiefly from Manchester.
But perhaps the most striking object there is the great variety of curious and gay costumes, various even among the different ciasses of Turks, but stili more from the heterogenous nations that svvarm and congregate in this quarter. The grave and stately Turkish merchant or shopkeeper, in his ample robes, and squatting on his shop-board, con-trasts vvith the strong, active, and almost gigantic hamal, or porter, bending beneath a burden vvhich it seems scarcely possible for the human back to sustain, though I am told that it is not unusual for them to carry a vveight of tvvelve to fourteen hundred cwt. Their dress is as simple as that of the other is ostentatious, vvith bare legs and vvhite dravvers, and a vvisp of cotton cloth rolled around their dirty fez or red skull-cap. Again, the Xebeque from the mountains, and the banks of the Maeander, vvith bare legs and vvhite dravvers fıtting tight to his thighs, but made preposterously loose behind, vvith his high and gaudy turban bedecked vvith tassles and fringes, is a very different being from the Euruque or Turcoman, clad in sombre brovvn tramping along in heavy-shod iron boots, and driving along on his camels and asses laden vvith charcoal for sale. Then the Armenians and Levantines, vvith their huge kalpaks and flovving robes, their dark complexions, and clean-shaved chins, are as different from the...fair-haired Jevvs. vvith bare foreheads, long-pointed beards, and rather öpen necks, as anything can vvell be imagined....Again, vvhat a striking difference we see betvveen the proud chavase vvith his splendid arms, his dagger, pistols, and silver-mounted yataghan, and the bandy-legged half-starved tactico (regular infantry soldier), vvith his ugly, useless fez and blue tassel, looking half angry and half-ashamed of his ill-made and un-mahometan dress! Hard by us a long chain of Turkish vvomen, silently shuffling along in their yellovv slippers, vvhose spectral dress forms a
striking variety to the party-coloured fıgures by which they are sur-rounded. Their faces are invisible, being concealed by a black silk mask, which strangely clashes with the vvhite shroud or cloak thrown över their heads, and almost envelopes their body in its ample folds. it is rare indeed that any other part of Üıeir dress can be seen but the hem of a robe or the tip of a yellovv boot.
îzmir continued to be a multi-ethnic city up until the Graeco-Turkish War that followed World War I. This conflict began when the Greek army landed in İzmir on 15 May 1919, after which they advanced into western Asia Minör. The Greek claim was legiti-mized on 10 August 1920 by the Treaty of Sevres, which empovv-ered Greece to occupy and administer İzmir and the surrounding region for a period of five years. The Greek claim to vvestem Asia Minör was violently opposed by the Nationaüst movement led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, later to be knovvn as Atatürk, who strove to create a new Turkish nation out of the ashes of the Ottoman Em-pire. The Nationalist Turkish forces ultimately defeated the Greek army in the ensuing war över the next two years, and at the begin-ning of September 1922 Greece evacuated ali of its forces from Asia Minör, most of them leaving from İzmir. The Turkish army, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, triumphantly entered İzmir on 9 Sep­tember of that year. Four days later, after widespread riots, the city was destroyed by a great fire in vvhich thousands died, most of them Greek. Most of the surviving Greeks then fled from İzmir and the surrounding region aboard vvhatever shipping they could fmd, with many more losing their lives in the process. Then in 1923 the remaining Greek population in Asia Minör was deported in the exchange of minorities agreed to in the Treaty of Lausanne, vvhich ended the Graeco-Turkish War. The Anatolian Greeks were re-placed by Turkish refugees from Greece, mostly from Crete and the Aegean isles, ending another chapter in the age-old conflict between East and West that forms the theme of The Histories of Herodotus. As he \vrites in the opening sentence of his work: "Herodotus of Halicarnassus, his Researches are here set down to

prcserve the memory of the past by putting on record the astonishg achievements both of our own and other peoples; and more particularly, to show how they came into conflict."
The scars of the great fire of 1922 have long since healed in jlzmir, vvhich is now for the most part a modern city, with only part Ol its old Turkish and Jevvish quarters surviving from the Levantine lovvn of late Ottoman times. The little that is left of old Smyrna has jbeen almost entirely engulfed by the enormous amount of new jconstruction that has taken place in the last quarter century. During this lime İzmir has been the fastest-grovving city in Turkey, its population now över three million. And so Levantine Smyrna is novv just a fading memory, and only a few fragmentary ruins re-main from the Graeco-Roman city that came into being through Ak\ander's dream.
The principal archaeological site remaining from Graeco-Ro­man Smyrna is the Agora, vvhich is about midway betvveen Kadifekale and the port. This market square was originally con-Btructed in the mid-second century A.D., and was then destroyed in v great earthquake of 178. Shortly aftervvards it was restored by e Empress Faustina n, wife of Marcus Aurelius. The Agora con-ısicd of a central courtyard measuring 120 by 80 meters, sur-unded on ali sides by Corinthian stoas, of vvhich only those on ;e north and west sides have been evacuated. Beneath the north toa ıhere is a splendid vaulted basement, above vvhich there was arcade of shops that opened out into a Roman market street. Some of the sculptures that önce adorned the Agora are now in e new İzmir Archaeological Museum, vvhich is on the road that inds uphill from the southern end of the port. The most notable of ese are statues of Poseidon and Demeter, the principal fıgures in beautiful and vvell-preserved group dating from the imperial Ro-an era, discovered vvhen the Agora was excavated in 1931-32. hese statues symbolized the tvvo principal sources of ancient jSmyrna's vvealth, for Poseidon vvas god of the sea and Demeter goddess of agriculture.
The other exhibits in the museum represent many of the ar-


chaeological sites along the Aegean coast of Turkey, including some other antiquities from ancient Smyrna. Among the latter there are some interesting architectural fragments from the archaic temple of Athena at Bayraklı, including an Aeolic capital of a type quite different from those found at Neandria and Larisa. The most spec-tacular exhibit in the museum, located in the basement gallery, is the head and forearm of a colossal marble statue of Domitian (r. 81-96). it is part of a cult figüre of the Emperor which vvas in the temple dedicated to him in Ephesus.
The seaside square near the southern end of the port is knovvn as Konak Meydanı. The principal landmark in the square is the Clock Tower, a neo-Moorish structure erected in 1901. Directly across the square from the tower we see Konak Camii, a pretty little octagonal mosque dating from 1794, its exterior revetted in tiles.
The main avenue leading into the center of the city from Konak Meydanı is Anafartalar Caddesi, better known by its old name of Kemeraltı (Under the Arches). This leads to the old Turkish quarter of Ottoman Smyrna, as one can see from the number of minarets projecting skyvvards from this labyrinth, which is almost entirely taken up with İzmir's renovvned Bazaar. The oldest of these mosques are Hisar Camii (1598), Şadırvanaltı Camii (1636-37), Başdurak Camii (1652, restored in 1774), Kestane Pazarı Camii (mid-seven-teenth century), Ali Ağa Camii (1671-72), and Hacı Mehmet Ağa Camii (1672). This last edifice is also known as Kemeraltı Camii, giving its name to the main street of the market quarter, vvhose most colorful stretch begins Uterally under the arches of the mosque's arcaded courtyard. Here one enters the Bazaar, which extends al­most the entire length of Kemeraltı. The oldest part of the Bazaar is at the westem end of Kemeraltı, around Hisar Camii, the Mosque of the Fortress. The narrow, winding streets that lead off from the little square around Hisar Camii are flanked by the oldest and most fascinating Ottoman buildings in İzmir. Ihe hans, huge commercial structures that originally served as inner-city caravansarais. The finest of these is the Kızlarağası Ham; this was originally built in
the second quarter of the seventeenth century by Beşir Ağa, Chief Black Eunuch during the reign of Mahmut I (r. 1730-54). These hans were particularly important in the commercial life of Ottoman îzmir, which vvas the terminus of the main east-west caravan route in Anatolia. Chandler writes of the hans of the Bazaar in his de-scription of the Ottoman buildings of İzmir:
The principal buildings in Smyrna are the mosques, the public baths, the bezesten or market, and the khans or inns. Some of these are very ample and noble edifıces. The khans have in general a quadrangular or square area, and sometimes a fountain in the middle. The upper story consists of an öpen gallery, with a range of apartments, and often a small mosque, or place of worship, for the use of the devout mussulmen. Below are the camels with their burdens, and the mules, or horses. A servant dusts the floor of a vacant chamber when you arrive, and spreading a mat, which is ali the fumiture, leaves you in possession. The gates are shut about sunset, and a trifling gratuity is expected by the keeper at your departure....

The old Jewish quarter is near the vvestern end of Kemeraltı, where the gold merchants have their shops. in times past most of these gold merchants were Sephardic Jews. Only a few continue to do business in the Bazaar, as the size of the Jevvish community in tzmir has much diminished in the past quarter-century. De La Motraye, a French traveler who visited izmir in 1699, noted that there were eight synagogues in the city, along with nineteen mosques, two Greek churches, and one Armenian church. Today there are eleven synagogues in İzmir, ali of them in excellent re-pair. The oldest of these is the Etz-Ha-Haim Synagogue, which was already in existence by the year 1300. This synagogue was used by the first Sephardic Jews who came to the Ottoman Empire in 1492 at the invitation of Beyazit II (r. 1481 -1512). it is famous as the site of the supposed miracle performed in 1666 by Shabbetai Sevi, the famous False Messiah, who was born in the Jevvish quarter of İzmir in 1626. Many thousands of Jews ali över the Ottoman Empire and in eastern Europe were led by this miracle to believe that Shabbetai was the long-awaited Messiah. The disturbances aroused by the news of this new religious leader led Mehmet IV (r. 1648-87) to order the arrest of Shabbetai, who later that year was brought be-fore the Sultan in his court at Edirne. There, threatened with execu-tion, Shabbetai saved his life by converting to islam, after which he convinced many of his follovvers to become Muslims. Thus arose the strange and secret cult knovvn to the Turks as Dönme (Turn-coats)—Jews who converted to islam through their reverence for Shabbetai Sevi, who led them to believe that he vvould one day return as their Messiah and lead them to their just reward in the next world. The sect is stili in existence, principally in istanbul and İzmir, though only a few of the older Dönme continue to avvait the second coming of their lost messiah.
The focal point of the modern city is Kültürpark, the site of the İzmir International Trade Fair, held annually in late August and early September. The Fairgrounds is the city's largest park, and its outdoor cafös make it a favorite gathering place in good \veather. The park has a Gallery of Painting and Sculpture, in which both
Turkish and foreign artists are represented, and also a Museum of Turkish Art, vvhich has changing exhibitions of objects on loan from the archaeological museums in izmir and istanbul.
Modern İzmir's most attractive feature is the Kordon, a seaside promenade that stretches for some four kilometers north from the maritime passenger terminal in the port. The main seaside square along the Kordon is Cumhuriyet Meydanı, where an equestrian statue of Atatürk commemorates his triumphal entry into İzmir at the head of the Turkish nationalist forces on 9 September 1922.There are numerous cafes and restaurants along the Kordon, ali of them with views of the surounding hills and mountains. The highest of the peaks around the head of the gulf is Kızıldağ, the Red Mountain, vvhich rises to an elevation of 1,067 meters some twenty-five kilometers to the west along the southern shore of the gulf. The most prominent feature of Kızıldağ is a bifurcated rocky peak known as the Two Brothers, which rises 883 meters above sea level just above the shore highvvay leading out along the peninsula west of İzmir. The Two Brothers are carefully watched by the people of İzmir, as Hamilton noted tnore than a century-and-a-half ago, because if clouds gather around them, particularly at sunset, then the next day is sure to bring rain. Those watching from the cafes along İzmir's vvaterfront mark sunset as the time when the sun falls behind the silhouette of the Two Brothers, its refracted light casting a changing palette of pastels över the gulf, as twilight begins to shroud the city with its sadness. The Greek poet George Seferiades, vvinner of the Nobel Prize for literatüre in 1963, vvas bom within sight of the Two Brothers, and he mentions them in one of his Iast poems, catching the mood of sunset and tvvilight in İzmir: "[T]he sun sets belovv the rock of the Two Brothers./The twilight spreads över the sky and sea like the colors of an inex-haustible love."