Overview
Smyrna — modern İzmir — is one of the oldest and most storied cities of the Aegean world, with a history stretching back to the 3rd millennium BCE. Located at the head of a deep, sheltered gulf on the western coast of Anatolia, the city's superb natural harbor and fertile hinterland made it one of the wealthiest and most culturally significant cities of antiquity, rivaling Ephesus, Pergamon, and Alexandria.
The earliest settlement, known as Old Smyrna (Bayraklı), dates to the Early Bronze Age and became a prosperous Aeolian and later Ionian Greek city by the early first millennium BCE. Old Smyrna was one of the cities that most vigorously claimed to be the birthplace of Homer, and this tradition, whether or not historically accurate, reflects the city's deep roots in Greek literary culture. The settlement was destroyed by the Lydian king Alyattes around 600 BCE and lay in ruins for centuries.
"Smyrna is the most beautiful of all cities."
— Strabo, c. 7 BCE - 23 CE
The city was refounded at its current location on the slopes of Mount Pagus (Kadifekale) around 300 BCE, supposedly at the direction of Alexander the Great, who dreamed of establishing a new city after resting under a plane tree on the mountain. The refounded city flourished under Hellenistic and Roman rule, becoming one of the most important cities of the province of Asia. Strabo called it the most beautiful of all cities, praising its regular street plan, gymnasium, and harbor.
As one of the Seven Churches addressed in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 2:8-11), Smyrna holds profound significance for early Christianity. The letter to Smyrna is notably the only one of the seven that contains no criticism — the church is praised for enduring tribulation and poverty. The martyrdom of Bishop Polycarp around 155 CE, one of the best-documented early Christian martyrdoms, took place in the city's stadium.
Izmir - Agora (1) | Glorious 93 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Roman Agora of Smyrna, excavated in the heart of modern İzmir's Kemeraltı district, is one of the most impressive Roman civic spaces visible in western Turkey. Originally built in the Hellenistic period and rebuilt after a devastating earthquake in 178 CE with the financial support of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the agora features a two-story colonnade with beautifully carved Corinthian capitals, basement corridors, and monumental arched entryways. The adjacent Kadifekale (Velvet Castle) preserves fortification walls from the Hellenistic through Ottoman periods.
Smyrna remained a major Byzantine city and later became one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the Ottoman Empire, with large Greek, Armenian, Jewish, and Levantine populations that earned it the nickname "Infidel İzmir" (Gavur İzmir). The Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922 destroyed much of the historic waterfront, but archaeological investigation continues to reveal the city's ancient layers beneath the modern metropolis.
