İzmir is a city on the west coast of Anatolia , and capital of İzmir Province . It is the third most populous city in Turkey , after Istanbul and Ankara , and the largest urban agglomeration on the Aegean Sea .
164-511: In 2019, the city of İzmir had a population of 2,965,900, while İzmir Province had a total population of 4,367,251. Its built-up (or metro) area was home to 3,209,179 inhabitants. It extends along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir and inland to the north across the Gediz River Delta ; to the east along an alluvial plain created by several small streams; and to slightly more rugged terrain in
328-736: A confederation of seafaring peoples contributed to the New Kingdom 's collapse in 1069 BC, commencing the Third Intermediate Period . Egypt's collapse liberated the more Egyptianised Kingdom of Kush in Nubia, who manoeuvred into power in Upper Egypt and conquered Lower Egypt in 754 BC to form the Kushite Empire . The Kushites ruled for a century and oversaw a revival in pyramid building , until they were driven out of Egypt by
492-583: A hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa , Trewartha climate classification : Cshk ), which is characterized by prolonged, very hot, dry summers, and cool, rainy winters. İzmir's average yearly precipitation is quite ample, at 730.5 mm (28.76 in); however, the vast majority of the city's rainfall occurs from November through March, and there is usually very little rainfall from June to September, with frequent summer droughts. The city received its greatest daily rainfall, 145.3 mm (5.72 in), on September 29, 2006, while
656-549: A principality into a major power on the trade route between Rome and India through conquering its unfortunately unknown neighbours, gaining a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade in the region. Aksum's rise had them rule over much of the regions from Lake Tana to the valley of the Nile , and they further conquered parts of the ailing Kingdom of Kush , led campaigns against the Noba and Beja peoples, and expanded into South Arabia . This led
820-597: A Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane ) in northwestern Libya , as well as the city of Ifrane in Morocco . Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province then named Africa Proconsularis , following its defeat of the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War in 146 BC, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya . The Latin suffix -ica can sometimes be used to denote
984-640: A dependency of the Hittites , who themselves spread their direct rule as far as the coast during their Great Kingdom. That the realm of the 13th century BC local Luwian ruler, who is depicted in the Kemalpaşa Karabel rock carving at a distance of only 50 km (31 mi) from İzmir was called the Kingdom of Myra may also leave grounds for association with the city's name. The latest known rendering in Greek of
1148-700: A former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France. Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957), becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Over the next decade, waves of decolonization took place across the continent, culminating in the 1960 Year of Africa and the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. Portugal's overseas presence in sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola , Cape Verde, Mozambique , Guinea-Bissau , and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from
1312-550: A land (e.g., in Celtica from Celtae , as used by Julius Caesar ). The later Muslim region of Ifriqiya , following its conquest of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire's Exarchatus Africae , also preserved a form of the name. According to the Romans, Africa lies to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between
1476-543: A large part of Turkey's present-day Aegean Region . In the late 19th century, the port was threatened by a build-up of silt in the gulf and an initiative, unique in the history of the Ottoman Empire, was undertaken in 1886. In order to redirect the silt, the bed of the Gediz River was redirected to its present-day northern course, so that it no longer flowed into the gulf. The beginning of the 20th century saw İzmir take on
1640-677: A millennium. Towards the end of the ancient period, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea bore the Kingdom of D'mt beginning in 980 BC. In modern-day Somalia and Djibouti there was the Macrobian Kingdom , with archaeological discoveries indicating the possibility of other unknown sophisticated civilisations at this time. After D'mt's fall in the 5th century BC the Ethiopian Plateau came to be ruled by numerous smaller unknown kingdoms who experienced strong south Arabian influence , until
1804-625: A monopoly on gold heading north and salt heading south, despite not controlling the gold fields themselves, located in the forest regions . It is probable that Wagadu's dominance on trade allowed for the gradual consolidation of many polities into a confederated state , whose composites stood in varying relations to the core, from fully administered to nominal tribute-paying parity. Based on large tumuli scattered across West Africa dating to this period, it has been stipulated that relative to Wagadu, there were further simultaneous and preceding kingdoms that have unfortunately been lost to time. At
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#17328555762631968-570: A native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern Berbers ; see Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with the Phoenician word ʿafar meaning "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from the Berber word ifri (plural ifran ) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania ,
2132-453: A plague in 1676, an earthquake in 1688, and a great fire in 1743, the city continued to grow. By the end of the 17th century, the population was estimated at around ninety thousand, the Turks forming the majority (about 60,000); there were also 15,000 Greeks, 8,000 Armenians and 6,000 to 7,000 Jews, as well as a considerable section made up of French , English , Dutch and Italian merchants. In
2296-418: A rather sparsely populated place in the 15th and 16th centuries, as indicated by the first extant Ottoman records describing the town dating from 1528. In 1530, 304 adult males, both tax-paying and tax-exempt were on record, 42 of them Christians. There were five urban wards, one of these situated in the immediate vicinity of the port, rather active despite the town's small size and where the non-Muslim population
2460-454: A riot resulting from the indiscipline of janissaries corps led to massive destruction of the Frankish merchant community and the killing of 1,500 members of the city's Greek community. In 1818, traveller William Jowett described the distribution of Smyrna (now İzmir)'s population: Turks 60,000, Greeks 40,000, Jews 10,000, Latins 3,000, Armenians 7,000. The first railway lines to be built within
2624-611: A time, intended to carve up large parts of Anatolia into respective zones of influence and offered the western regions of Turkey to Greece under the Treaty of Sèvres . On 15 May 1919, the Greek Army landed in Smyrna , but the Greek expedition towards central Anatolia was disastrous for both that country and for the local Greeks of Anatolia . By September 1922 the Greek army had been defeated and
2788-464: A transition from " informal imperialism " – military influence and economic dominance – to direct rule. Imperial rule by Europeans continued until after the conclusion of World War II , when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya,
2952-457: A whole fell into what is generally called the period of "Anatolian" and "Greek" Dark Ages of the Bronze Age collapse . At the dawn of İzmir's recorded history, Pausanias describes "evident tokens" such as "a port called after the name of Tantalus and a sepulcher of him by no means obscure", corresponding to the city's area and which have been tentatively located to date. The term "Old Smyrna"
3116-558: A wide arc to the north-west from İzmir, through the Karşıyaka suburb, contributed greatly to the development of the northern shores as urban areas. These new developments, typical of the industrial age and the way the city attracted merchants and middlemen gradually changed the demographic structure of the city, its culture and its Ottoman character. In 1867, İzmir finally became the center of its own vilayet , still called by neighboring Aydın's name but with its own administrative area covering
3280-530: Is 86 meters long, which crashed into each other in 1957. There is another shipwreck located off Güzelbahçe at a depth of 42 meters, which was discovered at the beginning of 2017, thought to be a 78 meters long cargo ship that sank in the late 1800s. It is also stated that one to four ships were sunk in the gulf during the First World War. Dozens of shipwrecks off the Sancakburnu Castle were removed from
3444-562: Is an example of the historic traces in the region prior to the Hellenistic Age , along with those found in nearby Kemalpaşa and Mount Sipylus . The Agora of Smyrna is well preserved, and is arranged into the Agora Open Air Museum of İzmir , although important parts buried under modern buildings wait to be brought to light. Serious consideration is also being given to uncovering the ancient theatre of Smyrna where St. Polycarp
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#17328555762633608-787: Is not always to be taken literally. Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the Human species originating from the continent. During the mid-20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as seven million years ago ( Before present , BP). Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern humans, such as Australopithecus afarensis radiometrically dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BP, Paranthropus boisei (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP) and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered. After
3772-763: Is one of the oldest settlements of the Mediterranean basin. The 2004 discovery of Yeşilova Höyük and the neighboring Yassıtepe, in the small delta of Meles River , now the Bornova plain, reset the starting date of the city's past further back than previously thought. Findings from two seasons of excavations carried out in the Yeşilova Höyük by a team of archaeologists from İzmir's Ege University indicate three levels, two of which are prehistoric. Level 2 bears traces of early to mid- Chalcolithic , and Level 3 of Neolithic settlements. These two levels would have been inhabited by
3936-467: Is partially restored today. Smyrna, by this point, was no longer a small town, but an urban center taking part in the Mediterranean trade. The city eventually became one of the twelve Ionian cities and was well on its way to becoming a foremost cultural and commercial center in the Mediterranean basin of that period, reaching its peak between 650–545 BC. The city's port position near their capital drew
4100-513: Is said to have been born in Smyrna in the 7th or 8th century BC . Combined with written evidence, it is generally admitted that Smyrna and Chios put forth the strongest arguments in claiming Homer and the main belief is that he was born in Ionia . The River Meles , still bearing the same name, is located within the city limits, although associations with the Homeric river is subject to controversy. From
4264-464: Is still concentrated in their traditional quarter of Karataş . Smyrniot Jews like Sabbatai Zevi and Darío Moreno were among famous figures in the city's Jewish community. Others include the Pallache family with three grand rabbis: Haim , Abraham , and Nissim . The Catholic Levantines of İzmir , who are mostly of Genoese and to a lesser degree of French and Venetian descent, live mainly in
4428-747: Is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Arabian Plate and the Gulf of Aqaba to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos . It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states , eight cities and islands that are part of non-African states , and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition . This count does not include Malta and Sicily , which are geologically part of
4592-400: Is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia . At about 30.3 million km (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth 's land area and 6% of its total surface area. With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population . Africa's population is the youngest among all
4756-809: Is used to describe the Archaic Period city located at Tepekule, Bayraklı, to make a distinction with the city of Smyrna rebuilt later on the slopes of Mount Pagos (present-day Kadifekale ). The Greek settlement in Old Smyrna is attested by the presence of pottery dating from about 1000 BC onwards. The most ancient preserved ruins date back to 725– 700 BC . According to Herodotus the city was founded by Aeolians and later seized by Ionians . The oldest house discovered in Bayraklı has been dated to 925 and 900 BC . The walls of this well-preserved house (2.45 by 4 metres or 8.0 by 13.1 feet), consisting of one small room typical of
4920-649: The 11th dynasty , based in Thebes , conquered the others to form the Middle Kingdom of Egypt , with the 12th dynasty expanding into Lower Nubia at the expense of Kerma . In 1700 BC, the Middle Kingdom fractured in two, ushering in the Second Intermediate Period . The Hyksos , a militaristic people from Palestine , invaded and conquered Lower Egypt, while Kerma coordinated invasions deep into Egypt to reach its greatest extent. In 1550 BC,
5084-627: The 18th dynasty expelled the Hyksos , and established the New Kingdom of Egypt . Using the advanced military technology the Hyksos had brought, the New Kingdom conquered the Levant from the Canaanites , Mittani , Amorites , and Hittites , and extinguished Kerma , incorporating Nubia into the empire, and sending the Egyptian empire into its golden age. Internal struggles, drought, famine, and invasions by
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5248-610: The Benin Empire . Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, a wet period in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation that had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium, with the Kingdom of Wagadu , the local name of the Ghana Empire , rising out of the Tichitt culture , growing wealthy following the introduction of the camel to the western Sahel, revolutionising
5412-521: The Cold War , and neocolonialism . Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and a large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context. Africa has a large quantity of natural resources and food resources, including diamonds , sugar , salt , gold , iron , cobalt , uranium , copper , bauxite , silver , petroleum , natural gas , cocoa beans , and tropical fruit . The continent
5576-854: The Congo Basin , the Empire of Kitara in the African Great Lakes , the Luba Empire in the Upemba Depression , the Kilwa Sultanate in the Swahili coast by crowding out Azania , with Rhapta being its last stronghold by the 1st century AD, and forming various city states constituting the Swahili civilisation . These migrations also prefaced the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the Zambezi basin . After reaching
5740-570: The Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, but the Nicaean Empire would reclaim possession of the city soon afterwards, albeit by according vast concessions to their Genoese allies who kept one of the city's castles and the lordship of the towns of Old Phocaea and New Phocaea (now part of the İzmir Province) from 1275 to 1340. Smyrna was captured again in the 14th century by Umur Bey,
5904-726: The Ekoi civilisation rose circa 2nd century AD, and are most notable for constructing the Ikom monoliths and developing the Nsibidi script . Pre-colonial Africa possessed as many as 10,000 different states and polities. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu peoples of central, southern, and eastern Africa; heavily structured clan groups in
6068-595: The Fatimids , Almoravids , Almohads , Ayyubids , Mamluks , Kongo , Mwene Muji , Luba , Lunda , Kitara , Aksum , Ethiopia , Adal , Ajuran , Kilwa , Sakalava , Imerina , Maravi , Mutapa , Rozvi , Mthwakazi , and Zulu . Slave trades created various diasporas , especially in the Americas . From the late 19th century to early 20th century, driven by the Second Industrial Revolution , most of Africa
6232-585: The Greeks remaining in the city fled, were killed or forced to leave under the terms of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey . Turkey is home to tens of thousands of black citizens descended from the African slave trade in the Ottoman Empire that can be traced back to the 14th century. Known as Afro-Turks , İzmir and the surrounding areas on the Aegean coast is a central hub for this population. İzmir has
6396-718: The Gulf of Smyrna , is a gulf on the Aegean Sea , with its inlet between the Karaburun Peninsula and the mainland area of Foça . It is 64 kilometres (40 mi) in length by 32 kilometres (20 mi) in breadth, with an excellent anchorage. The city of İzmir , an important port city of Turkey , surrounds the end of the gulf. The northern limit of the Gulf of İzmir is defined as a 13 nmi line running from Cape Kanlıkaya ( 38°40′29″N 26°28′23″E / 38.67472°N 26.47306°E / 38.67472; 26.47306 ) of
6560-617: The Horn of Africa ; the large Sahelian kingdoms ; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms, such as those of the Akan ; Edo , Yoruba , and Igbo people in West Africa; and the Swahili coastal trading towns of Southeast Africa. By the 9th century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana , Gao , and
6724-455: The Iron Age , were made of sun-dried bricks and the roof of the house was made of reeds . A house found in Old Smyrna with two floors and five rooms with a courtyard, built in the second half of the 7th century BC , is the oldest known house having so many rooms under its roof. Around that time, people started to build thick, protective ramparts made of sun-dried bricks around the city. Smyrna
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6888-718: The Isthmus of Suez in Egypt. Other migrations of modern humans within the African continent have been dated to that time, with evidence of early human settlement found in Southern Africa, Southeast Africa, North Africa, and the Sahara . The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions. At
7052-401: The Kanem-Bornu Empire . Ghana declined in the eleventh century, but was succeeded by the Mali Empire , which consolidated much of western Sudan in the thirteenth century. Kanem accepted Islam in the eleventh century. In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew with little influence from the Muslim north. The Kingdom of Nri , which was ruled by the Eze Nri ,
7216-660: The Karaburun Peninsula , to Cape Aslan ( 38°44′29″N 26°44′24″E / 38.74139°N 26.74000°E / 38.74139; 26.74000 ) of Foça . The surface area of the gulf is 960.4 km (370.8 sq mi), while its shore length is 464 km (288 mi). Uzunada located in the Gulf of İzmir is Turkey's fourth largest island. Other islands of the gulf include Hekim Island , Foça Islands ( Orak Island , Fener Ada , Incir Ada , Metelik Island ), Çiçek Islands ( Yassıca Island , Pırnarlı Island , İncirli Island , Akça ), Karantina Island , Yılan Island , and Büyük Ada . Seventeen rivers empty into
7380-472: The Kingdom of Dahomey , and the Oyo Empire ) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil , cocoa , timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars. The Scramble for Africa was the conquest and colonisation of most of Africa by seven Western European powers driven by
7544-504: The Lydians to Smyrna. The army of Lydia 's Mermnad dynasty conquered the city sometime around 610–600 BC and is reported to have burned and destroyed parts of the city, although recent analyses on the remains in Bayraklı demonstrate that the temple had been in continuous use or was very quickly repaired under the Lydian rule. Soon afterwards, an invasion from outside Anatolia by the Persian Empire effectively ended Old Smyrna's history as an urban center of note. The Persian emperor Cyrus
7708-439: The Mauro-Roman Kingdom and its numerous successor polities in the Maghreb, namely the kingdoms of Ouarsenis , Aurès , and Altava . The Vandals ruled Ifriqiya for a century until Byzantine reconquest in the early 6th century AD. The Byzantines and the Berber kingdoms fought minor inconsequential conflicts, such as in the case of Garmul , however largely coexisted. Further inland to the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa were
7872-477: The Mediterranean monk seal . İzmir Birds Paradise in the north of the gulf and Çakalburnu Lagoon in the south are the breeding ground of the birds. It is known that the first settlements around the gulf were in the Neolithic Age . The most known settlement is Smyrna , which was established around present-day Bayraklı in 3300s BC. Timur , who came to İzmir after the Battle of Ankara , seized İzmir Port Castle and its surroundings in December 1402 and ordered
8036-408: The Myrrha commifera shrub, a plant producing the aromatic resin called myrrh that is indigenous to the Middle East and northeastern Africa , which was the city's chief export in antiquity. The Romans took over this name as Smyrna , which is still the name used in English when referring to the city in pre-Turkish times. In Ottoman Turkish the town's name was ازمير Izmīr . In English,
8200-512: The Noba caused their disintegration into Makuria , Alodia , and Nobatia in the 5th century AD. The Romans managed to hold on to Egypt for the rest of the ancient period. In the Horn of Africa , there was the Land of Punt , a kingdom on the Red Sea , likely located in modern-day Eritrea or northern Somaliland . The Ancient Egyptians initially traded via middle-men with Punt until in 2350 BC when they established direct relations. They would become close trading partners for over
8364-430: The Nok culture from 1500 BC in modern-day Nigeria , the Daima culture around Lake Chad from 550 BC, Djenné-Djenno from 250 BC in modern-day Mali , and the Serer civilisation in modern-day Senegal , which built the Senegambian stone circles from the 3rd century BC. There is also detailed record of Igodomigodo , a small kingdom founded presumably in 40 BC, which would later go on to form
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#17328555762638528-399: The Ovambo kingdoms , most of which were later conquered. The 1884 Berlin Conference regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa, and is seen as emblematic of the "scramble". In the last quarter of the 19th century, there were considerable political rivalries between the European empires , which provided the impetus for the colonisation. The later years of the 19th century saw
8692-404: The Punic Wars against the expansionary Roman Republic , however momentum in these wars was not linear, with Carthage initially experiencing considerable success in the Second Punic War following Hannibal 's infamous crossing of the alps into northern Italy . Their defeat and subsequent collapse of their empire would produce two further polities in the Maghreb; Numidia , which had assisted
8856-402: The Roman Republic , and this included Smyrna. The city thus came under Roman rule as a civil diocese within the Province of Asia and enjoyed a new period of prosperity. Towards the close of the 1st century AD, Smyrna appeared as one of the seven churches of Asia (Revelation 2:9). Apostle John urged his followers to remain Christians: "Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you
9020-447: The Romans in 30 BC. The Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire freed the Levantine city state of Palmyra , which conquered Egypt ; their brief rule ended when they were reconquered by the Romans . In the midst of this, Kush regained independence from Egypt, and they would persist as a major regional power until, having been weakened from internal rebellion amid worsening climatic conditions, invasions by Aksum and
9184-494: The Sanhaja in modern-day Algeria , a broad grouping of three groupings of tribal confederations , one of which is the Masmuda grouping in modern-day Morocco , along with the nomadic Zenata ; their composite tribes would later go onto shape much of North African history . In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum . Archaeology points to sizable urban populations in West Africa beginning in
9348-488: The Sao civilisation flourished for over a millennium beginning in the 6th century BC, in territory that later became part of present-day Cameroon and Chad . Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze , copper , and iron , with finds including bronze sculptures, terracotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewellery, highly decorated pottery, and spears. Nearby, around Lake Ejagham in south-west Cameroon ,
9512-419: The Sassanid Empire and the Himyarite Kingdom in Arabia. The Maghreb and Ifriqiya were mostly cut off from the cradle of civilisation in Egypt by the Libyan desert , exacerbated by Egyptian boats being tailored to the Nile and not coping well in the open Mediterranean Sea . This caused its societies to develop contiguous to those of Southern Europe , until Phoenician settlements came to dominate
9676-417: The Second Industrial Revolution during the era of " New Imperialism " (1833–1914): Belgium , France , Germany , United Kingdom , Italy , Portugal and Spain . In 1870, 10% of the continent was formally under European control. By 1914, this figure had risen to almost 90%; the only states retaining sovereignty were Liberia , Ethiopia , Egba , Aussa , Senusiyya , Mbunda , the Dervish State , and
9840-404: The Seljuk commander Çaka Bey in 1076, along with Klazomenai , Foça and a number of the Aegean Islands . Çaka Bey (known as Tzachas among the Byzantines) used İzmir as a base for his naval operations. In 1097, the Byzantine commander John Doukas recaptured the city and the neighboring region. The port city was then captured by the Knights of St John when Constantinople was conquered by
10004-404: The Zambezi , the Bantu continued southward, with eastern groups continuing to modern-day Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd century AD. Further to the south, settlements of Bantu peoples who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen were well established south of the Limpopo River by the 4th century AD, displacing and absorbing the Khoisan . By the Chari River south of Lake Chad
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#173285557626310168-426: The indigenous peoples of the area, very roughly, between the 7th millennium BC and the 4th millennium BC. As the seashore receded with time, the site was later used as a cemetery. Several graves containing artifacts dating roughly from 3000 BC, and contemporary with the first city of Troy , were found. The first settlement to have commanded the Gulf of İzmir as a whole was established on top of Mount Yamanlar , to
10332-399: The population exchange between Greece and Turkey , a stipulation of the Treaty of Lausanne , which formally ended the Greco-Turkish War. The war, and especially the events that took place in İzmir, such as the fire, probably the greatest disaster the city has ever experienced, continue to influence the psyches of the two nations to this day. The Turks have claimed that the Greek army landing
10496-419: The presidential system of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a permanent basis—per the criteria laid out by Lührmann et al. (2018), only Botswana and Mauritius have been consistently democratic for the entirety of their post-colonial history. Most African countries have experienced several coups or periods of military dictatorship . Between 1990 and 2018, though,
10660-780: The trans-Saharan trade that linked their capital and Aoudaghost with Tahert and Sijilmasa in North Africa. Soninke traditions likely contain content from prehistory, mentioning four previous foundings of Wagadu , and holds that the final founding of Wagadu occurred after their first king did a deal with Bida , a serpent deity who was guarding a well, to sacrifice one maiden a year in exchange for assurance regarding plenty of rainfall and gold supply. Wagadu's core traversed modern-day southern Mauritania and western Mali , and Soninke tradition portrays early Ghana as warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population, although details of their expansion are extremely scarce. Wagadu made its profits from maintaining
10824-410: The tropic of Cancer , in the northern temperate zone . In the other extreme of the continent, southern Namibia , southern Botswana , great parts of South Africa , the entire territories of Lesotho and Eswatini and the southern tips of Mozambique and Madagascar are located below the tropic of Capricorn , in the southern temperate zone . Africa is highly biodiverse ; it is the continent with
10988-424: The written word . During the colonial period , oral sources were deprecated by European historians, which gave them the impression Africa had no recorded history. African historiography became organized at the academic level in the mid-20th century, and saw a movement towards utilising oral sources in a multidisciplinary approach, culminating in the General History of Africa , edited by specialists from across
11152-399: The İnciraltı Sea Museum and the Zübeyde Hanım Education and Museum Ship . There are nine Blue Flag beaches around the gulf (four in Foça, three in Karaburun, one in Güzelbahçe and one in Urla). There is a ban on diving in twelve points in the gulf to protect cultural and natural heritage. [REDACTED] Media related to Gulf of İzmir at Wikimedia Commons Africa Africa
11316-459: The 16th and 19th centuries. In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World , increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860,
11480-420: The 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon . Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the white minority government of Ian Smith , but was not internationally recognized as an independent state (as Zimbabwe ) until 1980, when black nationalists gained power after a bitter guerrilla war . Although South Africa
11644-435: The 17th century was largely a result of the attraction it exercised over foreigners and the city's European orientation. With the privileged trading conditions accorded to foreigners in 1620 (these were the infamous capitulations that were later to cause a serious threat and setback for the Ottoman state in its decline), İzmir began to be one of the foremost trade centers of the Empire. Foreign consulates moved from Chios to
11808-590: The 1st and 4th cataracts of the Nile . The 4th dynasty oversaw the height of the Old Kingdom , and constructed many great pyramids . Under the 6th dynasty power gradually decentralised to the nomarchs, culminating in the disintegration of the kingdom, exacerbated by drought and famine, thus commencing the First Intermediate Period in 2200 BC. This shattered state would last until 2055 BC when
11972-567: The 2nd century BC Mauretania fought alongside Numidia's Jugurtha in the Jugurthine War against the Romans after he had usurped the Numidian throne from a Roman ally. Together they inflicted heavy casualties that quaked the Roman Senate , with the war only ending inconclusively when Mauretania's Bocchus I sold out Jugurtha to the Romans. At the turn of the millennium, they both would face
12136-482: The 3rd millennium BC. Archaeological findings of the late Bronze Age show a certain degree of Mycenaean influence in the settlement and the surrounding region, though further excavations of Bronze Age layers are needed to propose Old Smyrna of that time as a Mycenaean settlement. In the 13th century BC, however, invasions from the Balkans (the so-called Sea Peoples ) destroyed Troy VII, and Central and Western Anatolia as
12300-716: The 4th millennium BC the Congo Basin was inhabited by the Bambenga , Bayaka , Bakoya , and Babongo in the west, the Bambuti in the east , and the Batwa who were widely scattered and also present in the Great Lakes region ; together they are grouped as Pygmies . On the later-named Swahili coast there were Cushitic -speaking peoples, and the Khoisan (a neologism for the Khoekhoe and San ) in
12464-416: The 4th millennium BC, which had crucially developed iron metallurgy by 1200 BC, in both smelting and forging for tools and weapons. Extensive east-west belts of deserts , grasslands , and forests from north to south were crucial for the moulding of their respective societies and meant that prior to the accession of trans-Saharan trade routes , symbiotic trade relations developed in response to
12628-494: The 7th century onwards, Smyrna achieved the identity of a city-state . About a thousand people lived inside the city walls , with others living in nearby villages, where fields, olive trees, vineyards , and the workshops of potters and stonecutters were located. People generally made their living from agriculture and fishing . The most important sanctuary of Old Smyrna was the Temple of Athena , which dates back to 640–580 BC and
12792-513: The African continent. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its largest by population. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union , which is headquartered in Addis Ababa . Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian . It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to the southern temperate zones. The majority of
12956-678: The Assyrians in 663 BC in reprisal for their expansion towards the Assyrian Empire . The Assyrians installed a puppet dynasty that later gained independence and once more unified Egypt , until they were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 525 BC. Egypt regained independence under the 28th dynasty in 404 BC but they were reconquered by the Achaemenids in 343 BC. The conquest of Achaemenid Egypt by Alexander
13120-553: The British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos ", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy ,
13284-667: The Great attacked the coastal cities of the Aegean after conquering the capital of Lydia . As a result, Old Smyrna was destroyed in 545 BC. Alexander the Great re-founded the city at a new location beyond the Meles River around 340 BC. Alexander had defeated the Persians in several battles and finally the Emperor Darius III himself at Issus in 333 BC. Old Smyrna on a small hill by the sea
13448-587: The Great in 332 BC marked the beginning of Hellenistic rule and the installation of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. The Ptolemaics lost their holdings outside of Africa to the Seleucids in the Syrian Wars , expanded into Cyrenaica and subjugated Kush in the 3rd century BC. In the 1st century BC, Ptolemaic Egypt became entangled in a Roman civil war , leading to its conquest by
13612-570: The Greeks alone numbered 130,000, out of a total population of 250,000. Moreover, according to various scholars, prior to the war, the city hosted more Greeks than Athens , the capital of Greece. The Ottoman ruling class of that era referred to the city as Infidel Smyrna ( Gavur İzmir) due to its strong Greek presence. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I , the victors had, for
13776-564: The Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century. The Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil were a collection of Arab Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized , and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under
13940-693: The Ottomans were assisted by the forces of the Knights Hospitaller who pressed the Sultan to return the port castle to them. However, the sultan refused to make this concession, despite the resulting tensions between the two camps, and he gave the Hospitallers permission to build a castle (the present-day Bodrum Castle ) in Petronium ( Bodrum ) instead. In a landward-looking arrangement somewhat against its nature,
14104-550: The Persian prophet Mani to consider Aksum as one of the four great powers of the 3rd century AD alongside Persia , Rome , and China . In the 4th century AD Aksum's king converted to Christianity and Aksum's population, who had followed syncretic mixes of local beliefs , slowly followed. The end of the 5th century saw Aksum allied with the Byzantine Empire , who viewed themselves as defenders of Christendom , balanced against
14268-558: The Romans in the Second Punic War, Mauretania , a Mauri tribal kingdom and home of the legendary King Atlas , and various tribes such as Garamantes , Musulamii , and Bavares . The Third Punic War would result in Carthage's total defeat in 146 BC and the Romans established the province of Africa , with Numidia assuming control of many of Carthage's African ports. Towards the end of
14432-804: The Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. Around 3500 BC, due to a tilt in the Earth's orbit , the Sahara experienced a period of rapid desertification. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa . Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during
14596-517: The Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification . This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and encouraged migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa. During the first millennium BC, a reduction in wild grain populations related to changing climate conditions facilitated
14760-625: The Turkish soldiers against the Greeks and Armenians (locals or hinterland refugees) in İzmir. These include the lynching of the Orthodox Metropolitan Chrysostomos following the recapture of the city on 9 September 1922 and the slaughter of Armenian and Greek males, who were then sent to the so-called labour battalions . The city was, once again, gradually rebuilt after the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. In 2020,
14924-468: The air temperature can climb as high as 40 °C (104 °F) from June to September; however, the high temperatures are usually between 30 and 36 °C (86 and 97 °F). Etesian winds ( Turkish : meltem , Greek : μελτέμι meltemi ) of the Aegean Sea occur regularly in the Gulf and city of İzmir. Standing on Mount Yamanlar , the tomb of Tantalus was excavated by Charles Texier in 1835 and
15088-408: The benefits of renting out eight-floor apartment blocks built to replace former single-family houses, proved especially disastrous for the urban landscape. Modern İzmir is growing in several directions at the same time. The north-western corridor extending to Aliağa brings together both mass housing projects, including villa-type projects and intensive industrial area, including an oil refinery . In
15252-643: The central government in Ankara and regularly fell short of government subsidies, and the city absorbed huge waves of immigration from inland Anatolia , causing a population explosion . Today, it is not surprising that many inhabitants of İzmir (similar to residents of other prominent Turkish cities) look back with nostalgia to a cozier, more manageable city, which came to an end in the last few decades. The Floor Ownership Law of 1965 ( Kat Mülkiyeti Kanunu ), allowing and encouraging arrangements between house or land proprietors and building contractors by which each would share
15416-686: The city and its present-day dependencies became an Ottoman sanjak ( sub-province ) either inside the larger vilayet ( province ) of Aydın part of the eyalet of Anatolia , with its capital in Kütahya or in "Cezayir" (i.e. "Islands" referring to "the Aegean Islands "). In the 15th century, two notable events for the city were a surprise Venetian raid in 1475 and the arrival of Sephardic Jews from Spain after 1492; they later made İzmir one of their principal urban centers in Ottoman lands. İzmir may have been
15580-529: The city by the early 17th century (1619 for the French Consulate, 1621 for the British), serving as trade centers for their nations. Each consulate had its own quay, where the ships under their flag would anchor. The long campaign for the conquest of Crete (22 years between 1648 and 1669) also considerably enhanced İzmir's position within the Ottoman realm since the city served as a port of dispatch and supply for
15744-510: The city was called Smyrna into the 20th century. Izmir (sometimes İzmir ) was adopted in English and most foreign languages after Turkey adopted the Latin alphabet in 1928 and urged other countries to use the city's Turkish name. However, the historic name Smyrna is still used today in some languages, such as Italian ( Smirne ), and Catalan , Portuguese , and Spanish ( Esmirna ). The city
15908-450: The city was damaged by the Aegean Sea earthquake and tsunami , which was the deadliest seismic event of that year. 117 people died and 1,034 more were injured in Turkey, all but one of whom were from the city of İzmir. The city of İzmir is composed of several metropolitan districts . Of these, the district of Konak corresponds to historical İzmir, with this district's area having constituted
16072-472: The city's central "İzmir Municipality" (Turkish: İzmir Belediyesi ) until 1984. With the formation of the "İzmir Metropolitan Municipality" (Turkish: İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi ), the city of İzmir at first grouped together its eleven (initially nine) urban districts – namely Balçova , Bayraklı , Bornova , Buca , Çiğli , Gaziemir , Güzelbahçe , Karabağlar , Karşıyaka , Konak , and Narlıdere – and later consolidated them with an additional nine of
16236-461: The city's name is the Aeolic Greek Μύρρα Mýrrha , corresponding to the later Ionian and Attic Σμύρνα ( Smýrna ) or Σμύρνη ( Smýrnē ), both presumably descendants of a Proto-Greek form * Smúrnā . Some would see in the city's name a reference to the name of an Amazon called Smyrna said to have seduced Theseus , leading him to name the city in her honor. Others link the name to
16400-532: The continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere , with a substantial portion and a number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere . Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of Western Sahara , Algeria , Libya and Egypt , the northern tip of Mauritania , and the entire territories of Morocco , Ceuta , Melilla , and Tunisia , which in turn are located above
16564-463: The continent as a whole has trended towards more democratic governance. Upon independence an overwhelming majority of Africans lived in extreme poverty . The continent suffered from the lack of infrastructural or industrial development under colonial rule, along with political instability. With limited financial resources or access to global markets, relatively stable countries such as Kenya still experienced only very slow economic development. Only
16728-424: The continent most vulnerable to climate change . The history of Africa is long, complex, and varied, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community . In African societies the oral word is revered, and they have generally recorded their history via oral tradition , which has led anthropologists to term them oral civilisations, contrasted with literate civilisations which pride
16892-457: The continent's south. The Bantu expansion constituted a major series of migrations of Bantu peoples from central Africa to eastern and southern Africa and was substantial in the settling of the continent. Commencing in the 2nd millennium BC, the Bantu began to migrate from Cameroon to central, eastern, and southern Africa, laying the foundations for future states such as the Kingdom of Kongo in
17056-473: The continent. Africa, particularly Eastern Africa , is widely accepted to be the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade , also known as the great apes . The earliest hominids and their ancestors have been dated to around 7 million years ago, and Homo sapiens (modern human) are believed to have originated in Africa 350,000 to 260,000 years ago. Africa is also considered by anthropologists to be
17220-419: The continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will reach 3.8 billion people by 2099. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania . Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography , climate , corruption , colonialism ,
17384-464: The crown of life" (Revelation 2:10). Given the importance of the city, Roman emperors who came to Anatolia also visited Smyrna. In early AD 124, Emperor Hadrian visited Smyrna on his journeys across the Empire and possibly Caracalla came in 214–215. Smyrna was a fine city with stone-paved streets. In AD 178, the city was devastated by an earthquake . Emperor Marcus Aurelius contributed greatly to
17548-570: The destruction of the castle. During the First World War , naval battles occurred between Sancakburnu Castle and Urla in March 1915 and around Uzunada in May 1916. Port of İzmir is a cargo and passenger port located to the east of the gulf. It is the seventh largest port of the country in terms of container volume and thirteenth in terms of cargo tonnage. There are nine active passenger ferry quays in
17712-487: The districts of Bornova and Buca . One of the most prominent present-day figures of the community is Caroline Giraud Koç , wife of the renowned Turkish industrialist Mustafa Koç , whose company, Koç Holding , is one of the largest family-owned industrial conglomerates in the world. İzmir once had a large Greek and Armenian community, but after the great fire of 1922 and the end of the Greco-Turkish War, many of
17876-428: The earliest instances of agriculture in human history. Its cultivation would gradually spread across Africa, before spreading to India around 2000 BC. People around modern-day Mauritania started making pottery and built stone settlements (e.g., Tichitt , Oualata ). Fishing, using bone-tipped harpoons , became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the increased rains. In West Africa,
18040-454: The east and the north-east, urban development ends near the natural barriers constituted respectively by the Belkahve ( Mount Nif ) and Sabuncubeli ( Mount Yamanlar - Mount Sipylus ) passes. But the settlements both above Bornova , inside the metropolitan zone, and around Kemalpaşa and Ulucak , outside the metropolitan zone, see mass housing and secondary residences development. More recently,
18204-535: The end of the Ice ages , estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in sub-Saharan Africa , with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5,000 BC,
18368-625: The evolution of Homo sapiens approximately 350,000 to 260,000 years BP in Africa, the continent was mainly populated by groups of hunter-gatherers . These first modern humans left Africa and populated the rest of the globe during the Out of Africa II migration dated to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting the continent either across Bab-el-Mandeb over the Red Sea , the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco, or
18532-647: The expansion of farming communities and the rapid adoption of rice cultivation around the Niger River. By the first millennium BC, ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa. Around that time it also became established in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, either through independent invention there or diffusion from the north and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500 AD, having lasted approximately 2,000 years, and by 500 BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Ironworking
18696-505: The fire range from 10,000 to 100,000 Approximately 50,000 to 400,000 Greek and Armenian refugees crammed the waterfront to escape from the fire and were forced to remain there under harsh conditions for nearly two weeks. The systematic evacuation of Greeks on the quay started on 24 September when the first Greek ships entered the harbor under the supervision of Allied destroyers. Some 150,000 to 200,000 Greeks were evacuated in total. The remaining Greeks were expelled to Greece in 1923, as part of
18860-556: The five Western Anatolian Beyliks in the winter of the same year he had come to the throne. In 1402, however, Timur ( Tamerlane ) won the Battle of Ankara against the Ottomans , putting a serious check on the Ottoman state for the two following decades and handing back the territories of most of the Beyliks to their former ruling dynasties. Timur attacked and destroyed Smyrna and was responsible for
19024-502: The growth and expansion of Aksum in the 1st century BC. Along the Horn's coast there were many ancient Somali city-states that thrived off of the wider Red Sea trade and transported their cargo via beden , exporting myrrh , frankincense , spices , gum , incense , and ivory , with freedom from Roman interference causing Indians to give the cities a lucrative monopoly on cinnamon from ancient India . The Kingdom of Aksum grew from
19188-402: The gulf . The İZKARAY project, which envisages the joining of the two sides of the gulf with a bridge, an artificial island and a tunnel, will provide road and rail connections between Balçova and Çiğli districts. There are five known shipwrecks in the Gulf of İzmir. At a depth of 16.4 meters off the Sancakburnu Castle, there are wrecks of two ships, one of which is 118 meters and the other
19352-556: The gulf, most notably the Gediz and the Meles . Gediz Delta , which is a Ramsar site , is located in the northeast of the gulf. Levent Marina is the only marina located in the gulf. The Gulf of İzmir was formed during the Quaternary geological period. The east-west direction pit of the gulf was formed as a result of breaking the faults. The northeastern coast of the gulf is the habitat of
19516-653: The head of a gulf running down in a deep indentation, midway along the western Anatolian coast, İzmir has been one of the principal mercantile cities of the Mediterranean Sea for much of its history. Until the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey , İzmir had a very large Greek population. It hosted the Mediterranean Games in 1971 and the World University Games (Universiade) in 2005 . The city participated in Climathon in 2019. In ancient Anatolia,
19680-493: The highest wind speed of 127.1 km/h (79.0 mph) was recorded on March 29, 1970. Maximum temperatures during the winter months are mostly between 10 and 16 °C (50 and 61 °F). Although it is rare, snow can fall in İzmir from December to February, which usually stays for a few hours rather than a whole day or more. The record 32 cm (13 in) of snow depth was recorded on January 31, 1945. Frost does occasionally occur at night almost every winter. During summer,
19844-443: The historical process is largely a communal one, with eyewitness accounts, hearsay , reminiscences, and occasionally visions , dreams, and hallucinations, crafted into oral traditions . Time is sometimes mythical and social, and truth generally viewed as relativist . Oral tradition can be exoteric or esoteric . It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes, and
20008-509: The kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt in northeast Africa . Around 3100 BC Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt to unify Egypt under the 1st dynasty , with the process of consolidation and assimilation completed by the time of the 3rd dynasty who formed the Old Kingdom of Egypt in 2686 BC. The Kingdom of Kerma emerged around this time to become the dominant force in Nubia , controlling territory as large as Egypt between
20172-507: The largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna . However, Africa also is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues , including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity , and pollution . These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa . The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as
20336-599: The last 200 years, in Ethiopia . The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6,000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat that was common from Algeria to Nubia . Between 10,000 and 9,000 BC, pottery
20500-568: The last Greek soldiers left Smyrna on 8 September 1922. The Turkish Army retook possession of the city on 9 September 1922, effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) . Four days later, on 13 September 1922, a great fire broke out in the city, lasting until 22 September . The fire completely destroyed the Greek and Armenian quarters, while the Muslim and Jewish quarters escaped damage. Estimated Greek and Armenians deaths resulting from
20664-644: The look of a global metropolis with a cosmopolitan city center. According to the 1893 Ottoman census, more than half of the population was Turkish, with 133,800 Greeks, 9,200 Armenians, 17,200 Jews, and 54,600 foreign nationals. According to author Katherine Flemming, by 1919, Smyrna's 150,000 Greeks made up just under half of the population, outnumbering the Turks in the city two to one, while the American Consul General, George Horton , records 165,000 Turks, 150,000 Greeks, 25,000 Jews, 25,000 Armenians, and 20,000 foreigners (Italians, French, British, Americans). According to Henry Morgenthau and Trudy Ring, before World War I,
20828-402: The lower castle in a surprise attack in the Smyrniote crusades . A sixty-year period of uneasy cohabitation between the two powers, the Beyliks holding the upper castle and the Knights the lower, followed by Umur Bey's death in 1348. The upper city of İzmir was captured from its Aydinid rulers by the Ottomans for the first time in 1389 during the reign of Bayezid I , who led his armies toward
20992-428: The massacre of most of the Christian population, which constituted the vast majority in Smyrna. In 1415, Mehmet I took back İzmir for the Ottomans for the second time. With the death of the last bey of Aydın, İzmiroğlu Cüneyd Bey , in 1426 the city passed fully under Ottoman control. İzmir's first Ottoman governor was Alexander , a converted son of the Bulgarian Shishman dynasty . During the campaigns against Cüneyd,
21156-429: The meantime, the Ottomans had allowed İzmir's inner bay dominated by the port castle to silt up progressively (the location of the present-day Kemeraltı bazaar zone) and the port castle ceased to be of use. In 1770, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by Russian forces at the Battle of Çeşme , located near the city. This triggered fanatical Muslim groups to proceed to the massacre of c. 1,500 local Greeks. Later, in 1797
21320-460: The metropolitan area displays growth, especially along the western corridor, encouraged by the Çeşme motorway and extending to districts outside the city of İzmir proper, such as Seferihisar and Urla . The population of the city is predominantly Muslim, but it was predominantly non-Muslim up to the earlier quarter of the 20th century. İzmir is also home to Turkey's second largest Jewish community after Istanbul, numbering about 2,500. The community
21484-488: The most genetically diverse continent as a result of being the longest inhabited. In the 4th and 3rd millennia BC Ancient Egypt , Kerma , Punt , and the Tichitt Tradition emerged in North , East and West Africa , while from 4000 BC until 1000 AD the Bantu expansion was substantial in laying the foundations for societies and states in Central , East , and Southern Africa . Some African empires include Wagadu , Mali , Songhai , Sokoto , Ife , Benin , Asante ,
21648-399: The most lucrative trading locations in the Gulf of Tunis . Phoenician settlements subsequently grew into Ancient Carthage after gaining independence from Phoenicia in the 6th century BC, and they would build an extensive empire and a strict mercantile network, all secured by one of the largest and most powerful navies in the ancient Mediterranean . Carthage would meet its demise in
21812-586: The name of a locality called Ti-smurna is mentioned in some of the Level II tablets from the Assyrian colony in Kültepe (first half of the 2nd millennium BC ), with the prefix ti- identifying a proper name, although it is not established with certainty that this name refers to modern-day İzmir. The modern name İzmir is the Turkish rendering of the Greek name Smyrna ( / ˈ s m ɜːr n ə / SMUR -nə ; Greek : Σμύρνη , romanized : Smýrni/Smýrnē ). In medieval times , Westerners used forms like Smire , Zmirra , Esmira , Ismira , which
21976-444: The northeast of the inner gulf. In connection with the silt brought by the streams which join the sea along the coastline, the settlement to form later the core of "Old Smyrna" was founded on the slopes of the same mountain, on a hill ( then a small peninsula connected to the mainland by a small isthmus ) in the present-day neighborhood of Tepekule in Bayraklı . The Bayraklı settlement is thought to have stretched back in time as far as
22140-439: The official religion, built mosques, and brought to Gao Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship. By the eleventh century, some Hausa states – such as Kano , Jigawa , Katsina , and Gobir – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans , and the manufacture of goods. Until the fifteenth century, these small states were on
22304-410: The opportunities afforded by north–south diversity in ecosystems. Various civilisations prospered in this period. From 4000 BC, the Tichitt culture in modern-day Mauritania and Mali was the oldest known complexly organised society in West Africa, with a four tiered hierarchical social structure. Other civilisations include the Kintampo culture from 2500 BC in modern-day Ghana ,
22468-408: The people could no longer swim in the gulf. With the population exceeding 1.7 million in the 1990s, the level of pollution has risen a lot and heavy metal traces were found in fish. In 1992, the treatment and sewage system, called the Grand Canal Project, started to be built by İZSU . Launched in October 2002, the system prevented waste water discharge to the gulf. By the 2010s, it was observed that
22632-421: The periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east. Slavery had long been practiced in Africa. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World. In addition, more than 1 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa between
22796-447: The pollution in the gulf was removed and the marine life returned to normal. With the Gulf of İzmir Oceanographic Monitoring Project carried out by İZSU since 2000, the cleaning of the gulf is tracked. Sailing is supported by Karşıyaka S.K. and Göztepe S.K. in the inner gulf. Yacht, sailing, canoe, rowing and dragon boat races are held in the gulf with the İzmir Gulf Festival, which is organized annually since 2017. The gulf hosts
22960-474: The predecessor to the African Union. The nascent countries decided to keep their colonial borders, with traditional power structures used in governance to varying degrees. Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of what was then known as northern Africa , located west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referring to all lands south of the Mediterranean , also known as Ancient Libya . This name seems to have originally referred to
23124-414: The present-day territory of Turkey went from İzmir. A 130 km (81 mi) İzmir- Aydın railway was started in 1856 and finished in 1867, a year later than the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway , itself started in 1863. In 1865 the population was estimated by the British ( Hyde Clarke ) at 180,000 with minorities of 80,000 Greeks, 8,000 Armenians and 10,000 Jews. The wide arc of the Smyrna-Cassaba line advancing in
23288-457: The province's districts outside the city proper. In 2013, the passing of Act 6360 established all thirty of İzmir Province's districts as part of İzmir's metropolitan area. The period after the 1960s and the 1970s saw another blow to the fabric of İzmir, when local administrations tended to neglect İzmir's traditional values and landmarks. For many inhabitants, this was as serious as the 1922 fire . Some administrators were not always in tune with
23452-479: The rebuilding of the city. During this period the agora was restored. Many of the works of architecture from the city's pre-Turkish period date from this period. After the Roman Empire was divided into two distinct entities, Smyrna became a territory of the Eastern Roman Empire . The city kept its status as a notable religious center in the early Byzantine period, but never returned to the Roman levels of prosperity. The Turkic peoples first captured Smyrna under
23616-426: The same fate as Carthage and be conquered by the Romans who established Mauretania and Numidia as provinces of their empire, while Musulamii , led by Tacfarinas , and Garamantes were eventually defeated in war in the 1st century AD however weren't conquered. In the 5th century AD the Vandals conquered north Africa precipitating the fall of Rome . Swathes of indigenous peoples would regain self-governance in
23780-408: The sea in 1967 and in the following years. In the period when 200,000 people lived around the gulf, the discharge of wastewater into the gulf did not cause any obvious problems. However, with the population exceeding 500,000 and industrialization, waste that has exceeded the capacity of the gulf to renew itself has begun to be discharged into the gulf. In this period, pollution became noticeable and
23944-410: The son of the founder of the Beylik of Aydın who first took the upper fort of Mount Pagos (thereafter called Kadifekale ), and then the lower port castle of Neon Kastron (called St. Peter by the Genoese and as "Ok Kalesi" by the Turks). As Tzachas had done two centuries before, Umur Bey used the city as a base for naval raids. In 1344, a coalition of forces coordinated by Pope Clement VI took back
24108-491: The south. İzmir has more than 3,000 years of recorded urban history , and up to 8,500 years of history as a human settlement since the Neolithic period. In classical antiquity the city was known as Smyrna – a name which remained in use in English and various other languages until around 1930, when government efforts led the original Greek name to be gradually phased out internationally in favor of its Turkish counterpart İzmir . Lying on an advantageous location at
24272-423: The southern corridor towards Gaziemir yet another important growth trend is observed, contributed to by the Aegean Free Zone, light industry, the airport and mass housing projects. The presence of the Tahtalı Dam, built to provide drinking water, and its protected zone did not check urban spread here, which has offshoots in cooperatives outside the metropolitan area as far south as the Ayrancılar– Torbalı axis. To
24436-802: The troops. İzmir is also one of the only Ottoman cities to have a (maritime) flag . [REDACTED] Roman Empire 133 BC–395 [REDACTED] Byzantine Empire 395–1076 Seljuk Empire 1076–1081 Chaka Bey 1081–1097 [REDACTED] Byzantine Empire 1097–1204 [REDACTED] Knights Hospitaller 1204–1209 Empire of Nicaea 1209–1261 [REDACTED] Byzantine Empire 1261–1330 [REDACTED] Beylik of Aydin 1330–1344 [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Knights Hospitaller and Beylik of Aydin 1344–1402 [REDACTED] Timurid Empire 1402–1405 [REDACTED] Beylik of Aydin 1405–1425 [REDACTED] Ottoman Empire 1425–1919 [REDACTED] Kingdom of Greece 1919–1922 [REDACTED] Republic of Turkey 1922–present Despite facing
24600-425: The two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 CE), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of "Africa" expanded with their knowledge. Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa": In African societies,
24764-433: The unifying framework of Islam. Following the breakup of Mali, a local leader named Sonni Ali (1464–1492) founded the Songhai Empire in the region of middle Niger and the western Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I (1493–1528) made Islam
24928-462: The wet phase ushered in an expanding rainforest and wooded savanna from Senegal to Cameroon . Between 9,000 and 5,000 BC, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm . Black-eyed peas and voandzeia (African groundnuts), were domesticated, followed by okra and kola nuts . Since most of the plants grew in the forest, the Niger–Congo speakers invented polished stone axes for clearing forest. Around 4,000 BC,
25092-418: Was rapidly conquered and colonised by European nations , save for Ethiopia and Liberia . European rule had significant impacts on Africa's societies , and colonies were maintained for the purpose of economic exploitation and extraction of natural resources. Most present states emerged from a process of decolonisation following World War II , and established the Organisation of African Unity in 1963,
25256-409: Was built on the Hippodamian system, in which streets run north-south and east-west and intersect at right angles, in a pattern familiar in the Near East but the earliest example in a western city. The houses all faced south. The most ancient paved streets in the Ionian civilization have also been discovered in ancient Smyrna. Homer , referred to as Melesigenes meaning "Child of the Meles Brook",
25420-417: Was concentrated. By 1576, İzmir had grown to house 492 taxpayers in eight urban wards and had a number of dependent villages. This corresponded to a total population estimated between 3500 and 5000. İzmir's remarkable growth began in the late 16th century when cotton and other products of the region brought French, English, Dutch and Venetian traders here. The emergence of İzmir as a major international port by
25584-401: Was established around the ninth century, making it one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes , found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu . The Kingdom of Ife , historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba ('king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language ), called the Ooni of Ife . Ife
25748-450: Was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions did not begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt , North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date. From 3500 BC, nomes (ruled by nomarchs ) coalesced to form
25912-474: Was independently invented in the region of Mali in the savannah of West Africa. In the steppes and savannahs of the Sahara and Sahel in Northern West Africa, people possibly ancestral to modern Nilo-Saharan and Mandé cultures started to collect wild millet , around 8,000 to 6,000 BC. Later, gourds , watermelons , castor beans , and cotton were also collected. Sorghum was first domesticated in Eastern Sudan around 4,000 BC, in one of
26076-413: Was large enough only for a few thousand people. Therefore, the slopes of Mount Pagos ( Kadifekale ) were chosen for the foundation of the new city, for which Alexander is credited, and this act laid the ground for a resurgence in the city's population. In 133 BC, Eumenes III, the last king of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum , was about to die without an heir. In his will , he bequeathed his kingdom to
26240-416: Was marked from the very first day by the "first bullet" fired on Greek detachments by the journalist Hasan Tahsin and the bayonetting to death of Colonel Fethi Bey and his unarmed soldiers in the city's historic barracks ( Sarı Kışla — the Yellow Barracks ), for refusing to shout " Zito o Venizelos " ("Long Live Venizelos "). The Greeks, on the other hand, have cited the numerous atrocities committed by
26404-421: Was martyred, buried under an urban zone on the slopes of Kadifekale . It was distinguishable until the 19th century, as evident by the sketches done at the time. At top of the same hill stands an ancient castle, one of İzmir's landmarks. Other ancient monument include also the Kızılçullu aqueducts in Buca district. Gulf of %C4%B0zmir The Gulf of İzmir ( Turkish : İzmir Körfezi ), formerly known as
26568-444: Was noted as a major religious and cultural centre in West Africa and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted by the Oyo Empire , whose obas, called the Alaafins of Oyo , controlled many other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms including the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey . The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over northwestern Africa and
26732-514: Was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority, initially through qualified voting rights and from 1956 by a system of racial segregation known as apartheid , until 1994. Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries. Since independence, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of
26896-436: Was rendered as İzmir into Turkish, originally written as ازمير with the Ottoman Turkish alphabet . The region of İzmir was situated on the southern fringes of the Yortan culture in Anatolia's prehistory, knowledge of which is almost entirely drawn from its cemeteries. In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, it was in the western end of the extension of the still largely obscure Arzawa Kingdom, an offshoot and usually
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