History

Ancient age

The city is one of the oldest settlements of the Mediterranean basin. The 2004 discovery of Yeşilova Höyük and the neighboring höyük of Yassıtepe, situated in the plain of Bornova, reset the starting date of the city's past further back than was previously thought. The findings of the two seasons of excavations carried out in Yeşilova Höyük by a team of archaeologists from Izmir's Ege University under the direction of Associate Professor Zafer Derin indicate three levels, two of which are prehistoric. Level 2 bears traces of early to mid-Chalcolithic, and the Level 3 of Neolithic settlements. These two levels would have been inhabited by the native peoples of Izmir, very roughly, between 6500 to 4000 BC. With the seashore drawing away in time, the site was later used as a cemetery (several graves containing artifacts dating, roughly, from 3000 BC were found).

By 1500 BC the region fell under the influence of the Central Anatolian Hittite Empire. The Hittites possessed a script and several localities near Izmir were mentioned in their records. They are associated with the vestiges on top of the Mount Yamanlar overlooking the gulf from the northeast.

In connection with the silt brought by the streams that join the sea along the coastline of the gulf's end, the settlement that later formed the core of Old Smyrna was founded more to the north-west of the prehistoric settlement and on the slopes of the Mount Yamanlar, on a hill in the present-day quarter of Bayraklı where settlement is thought to stretch back as far as the 3rd millennium BC. The hill was possibly an island at the time or perhaps connected to the mainland by a very narrow isthmus. This Izmir preceding Old Smyrna was one of the most advanced cultures in Anatolia of its time and on a par with Troy. It is also the phase commonly associated with the Amazon Smirna. The presence of a vineyard of Izmir's Wine and Beer Factory on this hill, also called Tepekule, prevented the urbanization of the site and facilitated the excavations that started in the 1960s by Ekrem Akurgal.

However, in the 1200s BC, invasions from the Balkans destroyed Troy VII and Hattusas, the capital of the Hittite capital. Central and Western Anatolia fell back into a Dark Age that lasted until the emergence of the Phrygian civilization in the 8th century BC.

Iron Age houses were small, one-room buildings. The oldest house unearthed in Bayraklı is dated to 925 and 900 BC. The walls of this well-preserved one-roomed house (2.45 x 4 m) were made of sun-dried bricks and the roof of the house was made of reeds. Around that time, people started to protect the city with thick ramparts made of sun-dried bricks. From then on Smyrna achieved an identity of city-state. About 1,000 lived inside the city walls, with others living in near-by villages, where fields, olive trees, vineyards, and the workshops of potters and stonecutters were located. People generally made their living through agriculture and fishing.

Homer, referred to as Melesigenes which means "Child of Meles Brook" is said to have been born in Smyrna. Meles Brook is located within the city of Izmir and still carries the same name. Aristotle recounts: "Kriteis... gives birth to Homer near Meles Brook and dies after. Maion brings this child up and names him as Melesigenes ("Child of Meles") to emphasize the place where he was born." Six other cities claimed that Homer was their countryman. These cities are Salamis, Argos, Athens, Rhodes, Colophon and Chios, but the main belief is that Homer was born in Ionia. Combined with written evidence, it is generally admitted that Smyrna and Chios put forth the strongest arguments in claiming Homer.

From the 8th century BC

Old Smyrna

The term Old Smyrna is used to describe the urban settlement in Tepekule, Bayraklı, to make a distinction with Smyrna re-built later on the slopes of Mt. Pagos (Kadifekale today). The most important sanctuary of Old Smyrna was the Temple of Athena, restored somewhat today. The most ancient ruins preserved to our day date back to 725-700 BC.

Greek settlement in Old Smyrna is attested by the presence of pottery dating from about 1000 BC onwards. The city was settled at first by the Aeolians, but shortly thereafter seized by the Ionians and Smyrna was added to the twelve Ionian cities. As such, the city set out on its way to become one of the most prominent cultural and commercial centers of that period in the Mediterranean basin.

The period in which Old Smyrna reached its peak was between 650-545 BC. This period was considered to be the most powerful period of the whole Ionian civilization. Under the leadership of the city of Miletus, Ionian colonies were established in Egypt, Syria, the west coasts of Lebanon, the Marmara region, around the Black Sea and in eastern Greece. The colonies competed amongst themselves, and were a match for Greece proper in many areas. Smyrna by this point was no longer a small town, but an urban center that took part in the Mediterranean trade.

One of the most important signs of that period is the widespread use of writing beginning with 650 BC. There are many inscriptions on presentations of the gifts dedicated to the goddess Athena, whose temple dates to 640-580 BC.

The oldest model of a many-roomed-type house of this period was found in ancient Smyrna. Known to be the oldest house having so many rooms under its roof, this house was built in the second half of 7th century BC. The house has two floors and has five rooms with a courtyard. The houses before this type were composed of megarons standing adjacent to each other. Smyrna was built on the Hippodamian system in which streets run north-south and east-west and intersect at right angles. The houses all faced to the south.

This city plan, which took the name Hippodamus later in the 5th century BC, followed a pattern familiar in the Near East. The city plan in the Bayraklı Höyük (mound) is the earliest example of this type in the Western Hemisphere. The most ancient paved streets of the Ionian civilization have been discovered in ancient Smyrna.

The riches of the city impressed the Lydians and attracted them to Smyrna. The Lydian army conquered the city in about 610-600 BC and burned and destroyed parts of the city. Soon afterwards, another invasion, this time Persian, effectively ended Old Smyrna's history as an urban center of note. The Persian Emperor, determined to punish the cities that refused to give him support in his campaign against the Lydians, attacked the coastal cities of the Aegean after having conquered Sardis, the capital of Lydia. As a result, old Smyrna was destroyed in 545 BC.

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great re-founded the city in about 300 BC. Alexander had defeated the Persians in several battles and finally the emperor Darius himself at Issus in 333 BC. The cities of the region witnessed a great resurgence in their population. During this period, Rhodes and Pergamon reached populations of over 100,000. Ephesus, Antioch and Alexandria reached a population of over 400,000. Old Smyrna, which had been founded on a small hill, was only sufficient for a few thousand people, so the new and larger city had been founded on the slopes of Mount Pagos (Kadifekale) in 300 BC. The flat-topped hill seemed destined by nature to be the acropolis of an ancient city.

Romans

Having become a Roman territory in 133 BC, Smyrna enjoyed a golden period for the second time. Due to the importance that the city achieved, the Roman emperors who came to Anatolia also visited Smyrna. Emperor Hadrian also visited Smyrna in his journey from 121 to 125. He ordered the construction of a silo near the docks.

In 178 AD the city was devastated by an earthquake. Considered to be one of the most severe disasters that the city has faced in its history, the earthquake razed the town to the ground. The destruction was so great that the support of the Empire for rebuilding was necessary. Emperor Marcus Aurelius contributed greatly to the rebuilding activities and the city was re-founded again. The state agora as restored during this period.

Various works of architecture are thought to have been built in the city during the Roman Empire period. The streets were completely paved with stones, and paved streets became preponderant in the city.

After the Roman Empire's division into two distinct entities, Smyrna became a territory of the Eastern Roman Empire. It preserved its status as a notable religious center in the early times of the Byzantine Empire. However, the city did decrease in size greatly during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Age, never returning to the Roman levels of prosperity.

Smyrna becomes Izmir

Çaka Bey and the Seljuk Turks

Turks first captured Smyrna under the Seljuk commander Çaka Bey in 1076, along with Klazomenai, Foça and a number of Aegean Islands. Çaka Bey used Izmir as a base for naval raids. After his death in 1102, the city and the neighboring region was recaptured by the Byzantine Empire. Smyrna was then captured by the Knights of Rhodes when Constantinople was conquered by the Crusaders in 1204, but the Nicaean Empire could reclaim possession of the city soon afterwards, albeit by according vast concessions to Genoese allies who kept one of the city's castles.

The sons of Aydin

Smyrna was recaptured by the Turks in early 14th century when, Umur Bey, the son of the founder of the Beylik of Aydın captured first the upper fort of Kadifekale, and then the lower port castle of Ok Kalesi. As Çaka Bey had done two centuries before, Umur Bey used the city as a base for naval raids. In 1344, taking advantage of a distracted Aydınoglu, the Genoese took back the lower castle. A sixty-year period of uneasy cohabitation between the two powers followed Umur Bey's death.

Tamerlane

Smyrna was captured by the Ottomans for the first time in 1389 by Bayezid I, who led his armies toward the five Western Anatolian Turkish Beyliks in the winter of the same year he had ascended the throne. The Ottoman take-over took place virtually without conflict. However, in 1402, Tamerlane won the Battle of Ankara against the Ottomans and put a serious check on the fortunes of the Ottoman state for the two following decades. Tamerlane gave back the territories of most of the Anatolian Turkish Beyliks to their former ruling dynasties, and he came in person to Izmir to lodge the only battle of his career against a non-Muslim power, finally taking back the port castle from the Genoese.

The Ottomans

In 1425, Murad II re-captured Izmir for the Ottomans for the second time and from the last bey of Aydın, Izmiroğlu Cüneyd Bey. During the campaign, the Ottomans were assisted by the forces of the Knights Templars who pressed the Sultan for possession of the port castle. The sultan refused despite tensions between the two camps, and he gave the Templars the permission to build a castle in Petronium (Bodrum Castle) instead.

The city became a typical Ottoman sanjak (sub-province) inside the larger Ottoman eyalet (province) of Aydın. Two notable events for the city during the rest of the 15th century were a Venetian raid in 1475 and the arrival of Jews from Spain after 1492, who later made Izmir one of their principal centers in Ottoman lands.

The Ottomans also allowed Izmir's inner bay dominated by the port castle to silt up progressively (the location of present-day Kemeraltı bazaar zone) and the port castle ceased to be of use.