About Çeşme
WHERE DOES THE NAME OF CESME COME FROM?
Çeşme is a charming holiday resort where healing hot waters, extraordinary quality sand, sun and clarity embrace. Çeşme is 94 km from İzmir. west, at the far end of the peninsula that bears its name. It was called the small harbor by the sailors. However, the region was called Çeşme because of the abundance of spring waters in Çeşme and its vicinity and its fountains, which increased over time and where ice-cold water flows. Building fountains around these constantly flowing springs is among our old traditions, as it is today. The fountain is named after these fountains, which are said to have been around a hundred once. All of these fountains have a unique feature and architecture.
Some of these fountains have remained defiantly intact for centuries, and some have survived to the present day thanks to restorations. While there were those who had to move to other places during the road widening works, many of them were lost due to the drying of their source, natural events or other reasons.
GEOGRAPHY
Çeşme district of İzmir province in the Aegean Region, 80 km. away from Anatolia is the farthest point in the west. Its area is 2601 km2. Çeşme is adjacent to the town of Urla from the east, the Aegean Sea from the south and west, and the district of Karaburun from the north; The distance to Chios Island in Greece is 8 miles. Within the scope of the Address Based Population Registration System in 2012, the population of the district is 33.931 people.
The western part of the Urla Peninsula, which is surrounded by the sea on three sides, is known as the Çeşme peninsula. Mountains descending perpendicular to the sea in Çeşme created magnificent natural beauties. The land is usually covered with stony and rocky hills, and there are small plains between the hills. The land is mostly sloping. The soil structure is pebbly, sandy and calcareous. Some areas have loamy and calcareous surfaces. Numerous bays, clear sea, sun, fine sands, sulphurous waters boiling in the sea are scattered along the 29 km coasts of the peninsula. There are Şifne, Küçük Liman, Pırlanta, Paşa harbor, Ilıca beach, Çiftlik, Altınkum, Çatal Azmak, Sakızlı Bay, Tekke beach, Ayayorgi and nearly twenty beaches with different names.
HISTORICAL
Republic Period:
Çeşme, which was also used as a base by the first Turkish admiral Çaka Bey, was an important trade and the last port used by the Ottoman Navy every year to set sail. Today, there are ships from Çeşme customs to the Greek islands.
Turkish Domination Period:
At the beginning of the 14th century, the influx of Aydınoğulları was effective in a short time and Çeşme Port was turned into a naval base. Umur Bey, who did not want to exclude the Genoese from trade completely, sent them to Chios Island, which he accepted under his rule, so that the region was under his control. Trade relations with the Genoese who would stay there would be made under their natural conditions. With the settlement of the Genoese in Chios in 1330, the port of Çeşme, whose location is the most suitable here, gained importance once again, so trade with the Genoese was continued under natural conditions. It was first annexed to the Ottoman lands by the 1st Beyazıt (Yıldırım). However, after the Battle of Ankara (1402), it was given back to Aydınoğulları by Timur. Since the end of the 17th century, İzmir, which was a small trade center where Western Anatolian products were sold, suddenly gained commercial superiority, Çeşme Port gradually regressed next to İzmir Port and lost its importance.
In the Ottoman Empire, which was governed by the State system for centuries, radical changes were made in the period of Sultan Abdulaziz on November 8, 1864, and these changes began to be implemented with the laws passed. According to this, Çeşme, which is a district of Aydın province connected to İzmir sanjak, became the District Governorship. As in many other Western Anatolian port cities, the Greek population of Çeşme was higher than the Turkish population. The Greeks developed viticulture and winemaking here, and they also cultivated wheat and other cereals, especially black seedless grapes. Anise and madder production has started. During the War of Independence, especially on September 9, 1922, İzmir, September 16
In 1922, with the liberation of Çeşme from the Greek occupation, the Greek population went to Greece. On July 24, 1923, a population exchange was made with the Treaty of Lausanne.
Ancient Period:
Known as Cyssus in ancient times, Çeşme is believed to have taken its current name from the “fountains” from which sailors supply water. Because the most important features of Çeşme are its drinking water and port. It is known that Erythrai, which has an extremely sheltered port, established relations with Egypt, Cyprus and western countries and developed its trade. Çeşme, which is one of the main tourism centers of our country, has an international reputation, and the people in its ceremony live intertwined with the remains of Erythrai (Ildırı), one of the 12 Ionian troops in ancient times.
Çeşme, Lydia, Persia, Pergamon (Pergamon) Kingdom, Roman and Byzantine ruled. One of the most important factors for Çeşme Port to come to the fore is that it is the closest and reliable point from Chios Island to the Anatolian coast. For this reason, the port has been able to keep commercial trade alive for centuries.
The influence of the Genoese, who made a name for the commercial life of Western Anatolia in the last half of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 14th century, was observed. In the same period, although the region was under the administration of Çaka Bey for a while, his domination lasted for a short time.
HISTORICAL PLACES IN CESME
Archeological studies conducted in Çeşme in recent years have shown that there has been a settlement in the region since the Neolithic Age. Neolithic in Çeşme District, Sakarya Mahallesi Bozalan Site; Chalcolithic and Mycenaean Period in the Germiyan Mansion; Bronze Era in Boyalık Locality, Bronze Era in Bagrasi Locality, Principalities and Ottoman Era in Old Cesme Village, findings or remains in Reisdere District in Ildırı Village have shown that Cesme Town has been the scene of settlement for approximately eight thousand years.
Erythrai ancient city located in Ildırı Village of Çeşme District; B.C. It became a leading member of the Panionion Union, which was established with the gathering of 12 important cities of the Ionian Region in the first thousand, and contributed substantially every year to the Attik-Delos Sea Union, which was established under the leadership of the Athens city-state.
Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism (https://izmir.ktb.gov.tr/TR-77446/cesme.html)