Actually Izmir has a lot of to offer in terms of tourist attractions, but for some reasons this beautiful metropolis on the Turkish Aegean coast has always been overshadowed by those big-name neighbouring coastal resort towns such as Cesme and Kusadasi. Most visitors consider Izmir as a transportation hub, and see very little of the city apart from its huge inter-city bus station and international airport.
Which is really a pity, as Izmir is a lovely place to spend a few days. Although with more than three million inhabitants, Izmir is a very leisurely city with plenty of open space, parks and scenic waterfront. Unlike other mega cities in Turkey where you often feel crowded out by the sheer number of people that seem to be constantly moving about on the streets at any given time of the day, in Izmir the presence of the Gulf of Izmir and miles of landscaped green space along the open waterfront ensure that there is always enough space and lots of fresh sea air for everybody.
Being one of the oldest cities in the world - with at least 3500 years of documented history and possibly even before that - Izmir has a special place in both the Turkish and the Greek national psyche. Even today, many Greeks still fondly remember the city as Smyrna.
In the 19th century, the city had a sizeable Greek population, but the disastrous defeat of the Greek armies in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 had all but eliminated centuries long of Greek presence in this city. Nowadays very little was left of the beautiful Sakiz-Greek style stone mansions and shophouses which once lined the promenades of Izmir's waterfront. Following the great fire of Izmir in the aftermath of the city's recapture by Turkish forces in September 1922, the Greek and Armenian neighbourhoods of the city were completely destroyed. Reckless plannings in the 1960s and 1970s added to the architectural calamity of this seaside city, as older houses in both the city centre and the surrounding suburbs were demolished and replaced by souless multi-storey concrete apartment blocks aimed to accommodate the influx of large number of immigrants from rural eastern Anatolia. Uncontrolled urban expansion also witnessed the rise of several shanty towns in the outskirts of Izmir, with matchbox-like make-shift houses and illegal buildings sprawling all over the hillsides overlooking the city centre.
In the 19th century, the city had a sizeable Greek population, but the disastrous defeat of the Greek armies in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 had all but eliminated centuries long of Greek presence in this city. Nowadays very little was left of the beautiful Sakiz-Greek style stone mansions and shophouses which once lined the promenades of Izmir's waterfront. Following the great fire of Izmir in the aftermath of the city's recapture by Turkish forces in September 1922, the Greek and Armenian neighbourhoods of the city were completely destroyed. Reckless plannings in the 1960s and 1970s added to the architectural calamity of this seaside city, as older houses in both the city centre and the surrounding suburbs were demolished and replaced by souless multi-storey concrete apartment blocks aimed to accommodate the influx of large number of immigrants from rural eastern Anatolia. Uncontrolled urban expansion also witnessed the rise of several shanty towns in the outskirts of Izmir, with matchbox-like make-shift houses and illegal buildings sprawling all over the hillsides overlooking the city centre.
The first time I travelled to Izmir, the sight of shanty towns, industrial installations, and unattractive modern high-rise buildings that lined the highway into the city centre, was a huge disappointment. I had expected something more interesting, more pleasant, but the nightmarish urban slum landscape of Izmir's outskirts proved too much of an eye-sore, it kind of put an end to all my curiosity about this city. Although I had travelled via Izmir's airport and its inter-city bus station many more times following that brief first visit, it never occurred to me that I should venture into the city centre again until some friends moved over to Izmir and invite me to join them.
It is not easy to appreciate the beauty of modern Izmir unless one has more than a few days' time at their disposal. It does make a big difference whether you are passing through this city in a hurry, or if you are able to enjoy all that Izmir has to offer in a leisurely mood. The city's obvious attractions are the Konak Square with its clock tower, and the famous Konak Pier, designed by Gustav Eiffel in 1890 and now a big shopping mall with trendy shops and expensive sea-view restaurants. Take a stroll along the quay of Izmir, you will find plenty of locals fishing on the waterfront, younger people sitting at the outdoor cafes on the promenade sipping tea or coffee, and lots of taverns and fish restaurants between the Konak Pier and the photogenic colonial style building of the Pasaport Quay. Those who love shopping can either head to the big traditional baazar right behind the Konak Square, or take the ferry across the Gulf of Izmir to the fashionable northern seaside suburbs of Karsiyaka and Bostanci where one finds numerous shops, restaurants and cafes. In the evening, local residents fill the parks along the waterfront between Karsiyaka Ferry Pier and Bostanci Pier, walking their dogs, playing football on the lawn, enjoying the fresh sea breeze in one of the outdoor cafes, or sitting on the embankment and admire the beautiful views of the Alsancak to Konak shorelines on the other side of the Gulf of Izmir in the night. .
Another place where one gets a wonderful view of the Gulf of Izmir and the Konak to Alsancak waterfront is the famous Asansör, an elevator built in 1907 in Karatas, the Jewish quarters of Izmir, by a rich local merchant of Jewish descent. The purpose of this elevator is to make life easier for residents of Karatas and spare them the efforts of having to climb up the hundreds of steps connecting the lower parts of Karatas to its upper town, which is located on top of a steep cliff. Having climbed up all those narrow steps myself after a long, hot day, I could truly appreciate what a relief the completion of this elevator must have been for those people living on top of the cliff of Karatas in those days. Nowadays the Asansör is the venue of a very posh and popular restaurant serving a mix of western and Turkish cuisines, and the customers are mostly well-off residents of Izmir who come here for the amazing views of the famous Kordon and the Gulf of Izmir, especially in the evening when the whole city is lighted up. If you decide to have dinner there, it is advisable to phone ahead to reserve a place with sea views, as we turned up without reservations at 19:00 and all the good seats with stunning view of the city and the sea were already taken.
As the Jewish quarters of Karatas had escaped the fire in 1922 that wiped out a large part of Izmir's former city centre, some of the streets in this part of the city are still lined with beautiful older buildings from the late 19th century. Although the number of turkish Jews in Izmir has gradually declined over the years since the founding of the Turkish Republic, there are still by estimate some 2000 Jews living in Izmir, most of them in Karatas.
In addition to the proper dining restaurant, there is also a terrace bistro bar that serves food, drinks, cocktails and some light snacks such as sandwich, pizza, grilled meat dishes etc.
Although this place is very well known and also appears in all the major guidebooks about Izmir, very few foreign tourists actually make it there. Which is perhaps not a bad thing after all, as the prices of the bistro and the restaurant remain very down-to-earth by Izmir standards, and certainly much better value-for-money than nearby places overran with backpackers and tourists such as Pamukkale or Kusadasi.
All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
Very good, except that most Jews no longer live in Karatash area, they live in Alsancak.
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