Located in the west of Turkey and on the Aegean shores, İzmir, the pearl of the Aegean, is the third largest city in Turkey. With its 8.500 year history, fertile land, favorable climate, 629 km coastline, 300 sunny days a year, a sea that offers every shade of blue and the heritage left behind by the 32 civilizations it has been a home to, İzmir is ready for you to discover.
The ancient Roman city of Ephesus was once a hugely popular stop on the Silk Road and it is now one of the most popular things to do in Izmir, welcoming almost 2 million visitors a year.
High on a hilltop overlooking the modern town of Bergama sits the Pergamon Acropolis, an ancient Greek city that was a seat of power in the 2nd Century BC.
The Clock Tower at the city center is a symbol of Izmir, located at Konak Square. It was designed by the Levantine French architect and built in 1901. In its lace like stone masonry, standing 25 m tall, the tower has 4 elegant fountains on 4 corners and 4 clocks.
Şirince is a beautiful hill town only 8 km (5 miles) east of Selçuk, near Ephesus, in the Aegean hinterland south of İzmir (map). It’s famous for its olive oil, fruit wines, other natural products, and its atmospheric boutique hotels.
Smyrna was a Greek city dating back to antiquity located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Since 1930, the modern city located there has been known as İzmir, in Turkey, the Turkish rendering of the same name.
House of Virgin Mary in Ephesus was not known till Anne Catherine Emmerich’s vision. The paralysed German nun who had never been to Ephesus had a vision of the House of the Virgin Mary and described it in detail to the German writer Clemens Brentano who later published a book about it. Catherine Emmerich died in 1884. In 1891 priests and historians from Izmir read about her vision and found a little building which corresponded with Emmerich’s descriptions.
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