View on Urla and the Aegean Sea (2020; source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgos_Seferis#/media/Datei:George_Seferis.JPG) In April 1825, the Austrian general, diplomat and travel writer Anton Prokesch von Osten stayed in Urla. In his Mittheilungen aus Kleinasien (Notices from Asia Minor) he gave the following account: “The bay of Vourla is not inferior to any other part of the beautiful gulf of Smyrna, especially in the present season, when the scent of sacrifice rises to the sky from all the mountains, and all the fields are adorned with wreaths. …In the hot season, the warships standing on the roadstead of Smyrna love to go to Vourla, as one [...]
Archives: Regions
Our CPT for the regions
Kaza Phokaia – Φώκαια / Phokaea / Phocaea / Foça
General view of Phokaia (photographer: Félix Sartiaux; source: http://www.levantineheritage.com/foca.htm) Foça is the successor settlement of the ancient and medieval Greek city of Phokaia (ancient Greek Φώκαια), also Phocaea (from the Latin form Phocaea; Galloital Foggia). Phocaea was located on the peninsula between the Gulf of Elaia and that of Smyrna. It was inhabited by Ionians, but was located in Aeolis. Phokaia had two natural harbours within close range of the settlement, both containing a number of small islands, including the island of Bakchion, occupied by temples and palaces. Phokaia’s harbors allowed it to develop a thriving seafaring economy, and to become a [...]
Kaza Ayvalık / Αϊβαλί – Aivali / Κυδωνίες – Kydonies
Ecumenical Genocide Memorial (Berlin): Commemorative Plate for Ayvalik / Kydonies The kaza’s administrative center of same name, Ayvalık (Grk. Kydonies), is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. It is surrounded by the archipelago of the Ayvalık Islands (the largest of which is Moschonisi(a), literally ‘The Perfumed Islands’; Trk.: Cunda Island, or Alibey Island) in the west, and by a narrow peninsula in the south named the Hakkıbey Peninsula. The constant threat posed by Arab and Turkish piracy in the region did not allow the islet settlements to grow larger and only Moschonisi could maintain a higher level [...]
Kaza of Σμύρνα – Smyrna / Σμύρνη – Smýrni / Զմիւռնիա – Zmyurnia
Ecumenical Genocide Memorial (Berlin): Commemorative Plate for Smyrna Administration Smyrna was the seat of the Governor General of Aydın Province (Vilayet), as well as the seat of a Greek Orthodox Metropolitan and one Catholic, one Greek, and one Armenian Archbishop. Toponym According to recent excavations, the city was originally called Tismurna, with the Ti prefix probably denoting a person. Turkish historians believe that the city was named after an eponymous Amazon named Σμύρνα (Smyrna), which was also the name of a quarter of Ephesus. In inscriptions and coins, the name often was written as Ζμύρνα (Zmýrna), Ζμυρναῖος (Zmyrnaîos, ‘of Smyrna’). The name Smyrna may also [...]
Sancak of Σμύρνα – Smyrna / Σμύρνη – Smýrni / Զմիւռնիա – Zmyurnia
Ecumenical Genocide Memorial (Berlin): Commemorative Plate for Smyrna Administration The sancak comprised the eleven kazas of Smyrna, Pergamon (Trk.: Bergama), Phokaia (Trk.: Foça), Menemen, Çeşme, Sivrihisar, Kuşadası, Tire, Bayındır, Evdemiye, and Vurla (also: Vourla; Urla). Population The orphanage of the Armenian Sanasarian School, 1890. (Source: Photographies arméniennes: Scènes et Portraits 1880-1930, réunies et commentées par Pierre Ter-Sarkissian, Jean-Claude Kebabdjian et Michel Pazoumina. Paris 1983, p. 43) According to American pre-Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) estimates, the Greek element in Smyrna Sancak counted 375,000 inhabitants and was the most numerous in that administrative unit, while other groups included Muslims (325,000), Jews (40,000, predominantly Sephardic and Romaniote) and [...]