Coming to the Çeşme
HISTORICAL PLACES
Çeşme Castle:
The castle, built in a rectangular shape by Beyazıt II in 1508, creates a magnificent view with its 6 towers and ditches on three sides. The castle, which was built by the sea when it was first built, remained more inland as the sea filled in time. The International Çeşme Music Competition, which is celebrated every year in the historical castle, and the Çeşme Festival between 2-7 July are held. When you visit the castle, you can see the statue of Great Turkish Commander Kaptan-ı Derya Cezayirli Hasan Pasha with his lion in front of the castle.
Cesme Museum:
The richness and quality of historical artifacts in museums reveal the historical richness of Çeşme in the best way. In the Çeşme Archeology Museum, which is located in the historical Çeşme Castle, where works from the Erythrai, Çeşme district center Alaçatı and Kalemburnu regions are exhibited, 320 archaeological works, 126 ethnographic works and 31 coins, 477 pieces in total are exhibited.
Museum Tel: 0.232.712 66 09
Visiting Hours: 08.30-12.00 / 13.00-17.00
Visiting Days: Every day except Mondays.
Caravanserai:
In 1528, Kervansaray added a special feature to Çeşme by Suleiman the Magnificent. The caravanserai, which was used especially for the accommodation of foreign merchants throughout history, now serves as a 45-room hotel. There are also night entertainment venues and shopping centers in Kervansaray.
Erythrai (Ildırı):
The ancient name of Ildırı village is Erythrai. It is thought that the word Erythrai derives from Erythros, which means “red” in Greek, and that Erythrai is used to mean “Red City” due to the red color of the city soil. According to another assumption, the city got its name from Erythros, the son of the first founder Rhadamanthes of Crete. Findings obtained in the city have shown that this region has been inhabited since the first Bronze Age. During the second colonization period, the city was under the rule of Knopos, a descendant of Athens King Kadros. The city, which was initially ruled by a kingdom, was later ruled by the Basileus, who were also descended from the king, but were chosen by the people. They joined the Panionion religious and political union established by the Ionian cities. The city had a short-lived period of tyranny with Pythagoras, and it gained importance with the millstones that it produced and sold outside during this period.
Erythrai passes into Lydia and later Persians. The city, which participated in the uprising against the Persian yoke, like other Ionian cities, together with all Ionian cities BC. In 334, Alexander regained his independence. Erythrai, which changed hands as a result of the chaos that broke out after the death of Alexander, passes into the hands of the Kingdom of Pergamon (Pergamon). It gained the status of a free city within the Roman Empire in 133 BC. During this period, she became famous with her wine, goats, millstones, and female oracles Sibyl and Herophile. The region, which was devastated by earthquakes, wars and plundering by Roman commanders in the 1st century BC; It started to be known as Ilderen and Ildırı after the 16th century.
SPORTS ACTIVITIES
Marina:
The south of Çeşme Peninsula constitutes one of Turkey’s major yacht routes. The Çeşme-Kuşadası route is the area where the yacht tourism infrastructure is most developed. The pier of Çeşme Port, which has a commercial and yacht harbor, is capable of berthing two small-tonnage vessels. The marina is designed to accommodate 150 boats.
Hunting:
Çeşme is also a rich place for those who enjoy hunting. The most interesting and exciting game is undoubtedly boar hunting. After obtaining the necessary permissions from the authorities, everyone can go out to hunt pigs in Çeşme. Çeşme is also a very rich place in terms of partridges and rabbits. The most common season of these animals is between September and December and hunting is free during this season. Çeşme can also host those interested in hunting in winter.
Alaçatı Pier:
It is a paradise for yachtsmen with its bays lined up in the south of Alaçatı town. 80 boats can be sheltered in a fully-fledged way on the pier.
Yachting in Cesme:
Yachting in Çeşme is highly developed. Çeşme is like a paradise for yachtsmen.
Çeşme-Altınyunus Marina:
70 large and 40 small boats can be connected and can provide all kinds of yacht maintenance services. The Marina is in a position to provide water, electricity, telephone, maintenance, repair and wintering services to yachts staying or staying overnight.
Camping-Caravan:
The camping sites in the bays of Büyük Liman and Paşa Limanı offer pleasant and entertaining camping opportunities. In addition, the natural beaches and camping areas in Ildırı, where the ancient city of Erythrai is located, are extremely suitable for use. Hundreds of campers choose these regions every year.
The Mysterious World of Diving and Underwater:
There are unique regions in Çeşme for the underwater enthusiast, from amateur to professional. Nature has been extremely generous in Çeşme, where you will witness incredible views of the underwater world.
ISLANDS OF CESME
Fener Island:
This island, which deepens to the bottom, is an ideal area for those who enjoy current diving. If you are lucky, you may even encounter seals from the permanent visitors of the island. There are two diving points around the island. Due to its shallow bottom structure at both diving points, it is generally used for second dives. The colorful bottom structure will fascinate you during dives in the region, whose depths are 18 meters. In the island region where all kinds of sponges and corals are found, small fish fish such as bream and sarpa will accompany you on the dive. There are several ancient seal caves on the island, where seals are sometimes seen.
Donkey Island:
Although there are many diving spots around, the split rock point is the most beautiful place on the island. Depth can go down to 50-60 meters. Especially the eastern wall, which starts from 20 meters above and goes down to 40 meters, is a place every diver would want to see.
Bed Island:
This island, where the depth goes up to 40 meters, is famous for its magnificent cave located at a depth of approximately 8-10 meters. It is generally preferred for the last dive of the day. The colorful riot of two caves in the west of the island and the space covered by the sponges inside are very suitable for macro and wide-angle photographers. When you look outside after entering with the wide angle lens, the turquoise blue in front of the dark will fascinate you.
SURF AND DIVING SPORTS
Windsurf:
After seeing Alaçatı, you will not want to be anywhere else to surf. Alaçatı is the most interesting and diverse region of Europe among the surfing regions. With its intact cover, the surf center is in a V-shaped bay with clear water. It is one of the most important surfing centers in Europe with various wind conditions and ideal surfing area. In this region where sea water is quite shallow, the wind also blows from the north.
The wind with an average intensity of 4-6 from June to the middle of September blows as a 50% south wind in April-October and creates beautiful waves. Alaçatı is like a region made for surfers. The most beautiful feature of Alaçatı is that the wind blows from the left, that is, as a breeze, and regular waves are formed even in strong winds. The fact that the current is in the same direction with the wind gives surfers insatiable moments. Alaçatı is also undoubtedly the most reliable among the regions with the breeze wind. Here, four separate winds caress the Çeşme Peninsula that stretches into the Aegean. It is a special beauty that the breeze, Lodos, Poyraz and Gerence winds also visit the region throughout the year.
Kitesurf at Pırlanta Beach:
Pırlanta Beach in Çiftlikköy has made Çeşme a candidate to be “the wind capital of Europe” with its strong and steady wind and waves. Pırlanta Beach, located in the west of Çeşme, is named after its sand that shines like a diamond. The fact that the sea is shallow for 250 meters and only sparkling sand has enabled surfers from all over the world to come to this region. In the 2000s, the beach became the new center for kitesurfing and kitesurfers, the newest extreme sport of the new millennium. Pırlanta Beach has become one of the most important centers in the world with this sport, where many windsurfers start due to its similarities to windsurfing. In addition, kitesurfing serves Çeşme Tourism with 13 foreign tour operators from April to November and efforts are made to extend the season further.
Kitesurfing also complements each other with many other extreme sports. Kitesurfing is the new generation of windsurfing. As windsurfing has become an over-age sport in the new millennium due to the declining demand of the younger generation, kitesurfing is the fastest rising sport in the world, booming. In addition, in terms of board usage, those who make snowboards, skateboard, wakeboard and rollerblade have also started this sport.
Surfing facility Kitesurfbeach, located in Pırlanta Beach, is the certificate-granting school of the International Kitesurf Organization (IKO) in Turkey, and training is provided only with certified teachers. 2005 Turkey Kitesurf Championship, 2005 Water and Air World Championship, and in 2006 Turkey Kitesurf Freestyle and Turkey Windsurf Freestyle Championships were organized here. Pırlanta Beach, which provides windsurfers and kitesurfers with accommodation, camping and caravan opportunities in the surrounding hotels
There is also a café, swimming and sunbathing areas for those who come to watch.
Ildırı Bay:
The cave reef in this area, which was a forbidden area until last year, is the most beautiful diving spot. On the west-facing side of the shallow, a wall nearly 70 meters long runs from south to north. The depth of this wall, whose upper part is about 8 meters deep to the surface, goes from 12 meters to 35 meters. There are 3 interconnected caves around 21 meters and one of these caves has an exit around 12 meters in the middle of the shallow.
CESME BEACHES
You will enjoy each of the beautiful beaches you will see along the 29 km long Çeşme coastline. Because Çeşme is such a beautiful house that; It always embraces you with its clean sea, its rare soft beaches and the sun where you can reach the tan you want without being overwhelmed. Do you want to cool off in a calm sea and then sunbathe calmly on the warm beach, do you want to rent a yacht and tour the islands, put on your diving tube and explore the richness in the deep, or take your surfboard and dance with the wind? You can even dream. It is as if Çeşme has thought of all of them in advance and prepared each of its beaches as a different alternative and presented them to your service. Here are some of the most important beaches;
Paint Dark:
About 5 km. It is a long bay with beautiful beaches. Showing the characteristics of Ilıca beach, this bay is also one of the fastest growing tourism areas in Çeşme today. At the junction of Kalem Burnu, located in the middle of the bay, with the land, there is Altınyunus Holiday Village and Marina, which was one of the largest and most modern accommodation facilities in Turkey in the years it was built. This holiday village offers all its natural riches at your disposal. The calmest beach of this bay, which is closed to northern winds, is Sakin Deniz (Ayayorgi) beach. It is a really calm and relaxing corner with its restaurants on the shore and pleasant facilities.
Dalyan and Sakızlı Bay:
Located on the northern shores of the Çeşme peninsula, these tourist centers are a region where the Aegean life and natural beauties gather, with its typical fishing district, houses, harbor, beaches and people. This area is 4 km from Çeşme district center. away. Numerous quality hotels and hostels await you in Dalyan village.
Ildırı:
Ildırı and its region, where the ancient city of Erythria is located, is an interesting area for campers in terms of its natural beaches and camping areas. It is 22 km from Çeşme town center. 15 km from Ilica. Transportation to the region, which has historical and natural riches, is made by an asphalt road after Şifne.
Şifne- Grand Harbor-Pasha Port:
It is a fascinating center with its coastline extending to Şifne in the northeast direction with Ilıca beach being the center, beautiful beaches and hot springs. Büyük Liman is a place where the bays of Paşa Limanı, touristic facilities, camping areas and collective summer residences are gathered. Şifne is a center famous for its thermal springs and many clean and tidy pensions provide service. It is about 5 km from Ilıca center. Transportation to this important tourism center, which is away, is provided from Ilıca.
Çiftlikköy and Pırlanta Beach:
This beach is located in the south and southwest of Çeşme. The most important beaches of this region are PIRLANTA-TURSİTE and ALTINKUM beaches. Here, too, high-quality hotels and hostels await you. There are also suitable areas for camping here.
Spa:
It is the largest and most popular tourism center of Çeşme with its wide and white sandy beaches of nearly 2 km length, qualified accommodation facilities and thermal facilities. The hot thermal waters boiling from the sea turn the Ilıca beach and other beaches in the region into large thermal pools.
Large and small accommodation facilities in Ilıca are able to meet the needs of an intense tourist capacity. The most important issue that increases the importance of Ilıca is its thermal facilities. Many small hotels and hostels even have hot spring water. One of the most important features of Çeşme beaches and especially Ilıca beach is that a strip of approximately 100 meters from the coast towards the sea is at a depth not exceeding the height of a human. Scientific findings have proven that ultraviolet rays are much more beneficial for human health in shallow waters, especially in waters fed by thermal springs. In addition to these, the opportunities for children to benefit from these beaches are also very convenient in terms of health and life safety.
Donkey Island:
Today’s Eşek Island, formerly known as “GONI”, is an hour away from Çeşme by yachts, with its clean bays and hospitable donkeys, an ideal place for daily yacht cruises. Due to its natural location, its bays, which are closed to northern winds, are very suitable for underwater and surface sports. There is a wind-powered fresh water well for donkeys to live on the island, which is almost entirely covered with maquis. Especially if you happen to be in the spring, you will encounter the intoxicating scent of wild daffodils, galls and thyme. The island serves purely for touristic purposes and it is not possible to stay overnight as it is within the scope of National Parks. Located right next to the island, the Black Island, Blue Bay, which looks like a natural aquarium, will be a haunt for you.
Çatamaz Beach:
Çatazmak Beach, which is accessible from Çeşme district center, is also one of Çeşme’s worth-seeing beaches.
ÇEŞME ECONOMY
INDUSTRY:
There is no industrial investment in our district. Having made great developments in terms of tourism and in the near future,
All kinds of industrial establishments to be built in our district, which is candidate to be one of the few tourism resorts of the moment, will remove the region from the tourism character.
TOURISM
Çeşme is a cute touristic holiday town of İzmir. Economic activities in this region are therefore based on tourism. The region attracts a lot of tourists during the summer months. The reason for this is of course the natural beauty of the fountain.
Çeşme is also described as the pearl of the Aegean. Çeşme has turned this beauty into financial income. The hotels opened in the region during the summer months have provided job opportunities for many young people in the region. Unemployed young people in the region do these jobs in these hotels in summer, whether they are animators or other jobs. In this way, a great employment is provided in the region.
In addition, since Çeşme is in the Aegean Region, there are many different plants and fruits in the region due to the ongoing climate in the region. These fruits and vegetables are also very beneficial for the economy of the region.
Although agriculture is an important source of income in the region, these agricultural activities have mostly remained in the background due to the abundance of tourism activities. All coasts of the peninsula; beaches, thermal springs, clean sea with alternative temperatures on different coasts, bays closed to different winds are an important advantage in terms of tourism.
AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK:
The Change and Characteristics of Agricultural Activity in Our District Until the 1930s, Bağcılık, which reached up to 50% of the agricultural areas in the district and exceeded 50% in places, partially constituted the dominant product pattern of olive cultivation, and since the 1930s, due to the floxera pest, it gradually Beginning to shrink, the vineyards remaining in the early 1950s were also removed and tobacco agriculture started, and until the early 1980s, it became a priority product.Since the early 1980s, tobacco has been replaced by melon, and melon fields are still the first in the current cultivated agricultural areas. It still maintains its importance. Olive and artichoke production is also important in the district.
THERMALS
Şifne (Reisdere) Thermal Spring and Mud:
There are various accommodation and catering facilities around a small peninsula in Şifne Bay, 5 km north-east of Çeşme Ilıcaları. It is beneficial in skin diseases such as rheumatism, rickets, gynecological diseases and urinary tract, stomach, intestines, eczema, and carbuncles.
Çeşme Hot Springs:
It is on the İzmir – Çeşme road and 5 km from Çeşme. It is one of the most interesting and hard-to-find hot springs in the world, with Çeşme Ilıcaları beach and hot spring at the same place. The temperature of the waters is around 58oC. It is beneficial in all chronic forms of rheumatism, metabolism disorders such as gout and obesity, rickets, women, skin diseases, painful diseases of the liver and urinary tract. There are modern accommodation facilities around the hot spring. In addition, these accommodation facilities have thermal pools and baths. Transportation to Çeşme thermal springs is possible with Çeşme buses departing from Üçkuyular.
GUM TREE
The mastic trees that were first found in Çeşme 6000 years ago are worth seeing. Gum jam and unique mastic rakı are made from these trees with its delicious aroma. In addition to its use in kitchens, chewing gum is also used in medicine and paint production.
Ancient Greek doctors used various medicines from chewing gum against rabies, snake bites, stomach ailments, intestinal and lung diseases. After the 10th century, the fame of chewing gum spread beyond Chios and became famous in the world.
With the “We Are In Love With Gum Trees” project implemented in cooperation with Tema and Falim mastic, it was aimed to revive the mastic trees, which are the local wealth of the Aegean. Within the scope of the project, studies are continuing rapidly to increase the number of productive trees in Çeşme Peninsula, which is one of the rare geographies in the world where mastic trees give the most efficient resin. With this project, it has been taken under protection in the Çeşme Peninsula, the homeland of the Gum Trees, which is the source of chewing mastic that has been chewed with pleasure for 2 thousand years, and the heritage of Turkey has been carried to the future.
TRANSPORTATION
Highway:
The transportation hub of Çeşme, which is connected to İzmir by two roads, a 77 km narrow asphalt and an 80 km highway, is İzmir. Tourists coming by land, air and sea travel first to Izmir and then to Çeşme and Ildırı by buses. Bus services easily meet the needs even on the busiest days of the tourism season. Çeşme district center is the last stop for buses and minibuses. Minibuses and municipal buses run to Çiftlik, Dalyan, Alaçatı, Reisdere, Ovacık and other beaches.
Seaway:
There are ferry services between Çeşme and Chios Island. Tourists entering Çeşme from Greece by sea are transported by Turkish and Greek ferries running between Chios Island and Çeşme. The distance between the island and Çeşme is 8 miles, in other words one hour. Ferries making a voyage to Izmir-Çeşme-Kuşadası-Greece and Italy also stop by the port.
Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism website
(https://izmir.ktb.gov.tr/TR-77446/cesme.html )