İzmir

İzmir, historically Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir, by the Aegean Sea. It is the seat of İzmir Province, which has an area of 7350 km. The city of İzmir is composed of eleven metropolitan districts (Balçova, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karabağlar, Karşıyaka, Konak, Menemen, Narlıdere, and Torbalı), each with it... more

İzmir, historically Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir, by the Aegean Sea. It is the seat of İzmir Province, which has an area of 7350 km. The city of İzmir is composed of eleven metropolitan districts (Balçova, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karabağlar, Karşıyaka, Konak, Menemen, Narlıdere, and Torbalı), each with its own distinct features and temperament, but all headed by the Mayor of İzmir. The total population of the metropolitan municipality is 3,795,978 by the end of 2008. The central area of the city consists of nine of those districts with a total area of 855 km (330 sq mi), and a population of 2,606,294. İzmir has almost 3,500 years of urban past, and possibly that much more of advanced human settlement. Its port, privatized in 2007 , is Turkey's first port for exports in terms of the freight handled and its free zone, a Turkish-U.S. joint... less