Büyükçekmece
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Büyükçekmece is a district in the suburbs of İstanbul, Turkey on the Marmara coast of the European side, west of the city. It is largely an industrial area. Population 380,000.
[edit] History
The land around this inlet of the Sea of Marmara, has been settled, abandoned and resettled throughout history as army after army passed along the Marmara coast to İstanbul. It is thought to be the site of the Greek colony on the Marmara shore called "Athyra". The Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan built a bridge to cross the mouth of the inlet and there are ruins of inns and caravansarai which show this was a stopping place on the road to Europe. At the beginning of the Ottoman period it was empty forest and farmland and has gradually been settled by Turkish peoples migrating in from the Balkans and the Caucasus.
In the early years of the Turkish republic it was still very rural, with village cottages, farmland behind, and by the sea the odd weekend home for Istanbul people. The area was a very popular day or weekend trip from the city, there is a sandy shoreline, a long seafront and until the 1970s families would come out to Büyükçekmece for fishing, crabbing or for a day on the beach.
[edit] Büyükçekmece today
The area administered by Büyükçekmece includes a large hinterland behind the Marmara shore, some of it still rural.
In the centre of Büyükçekmece itself there are still tea gardens on the seafront and other places for kids to play while their families sit, picnic and enjoy the sea views. These are now used by day trippers from the city, especially the nearby dense working-class housing areas such as Avcilar. At weekends the area is crowded with families of people who go in the sea in their underwear rather than buy swimwear, although swimming is unadvisable in these polluted waters. In the evenings it is full of young lads driving around in cars or just hanging around.
There are no holiday-makers now, they have moved further out from the city as since the 1950's the area has become industrialised, over-built with apartment buildings, and populated by migrants from Anatolia. Today the inlet and the Marmara Sea are both very polluted and the infrastructure of an industrial city is now in place.
[edit] See also
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Districts of Istanbul |
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Adalar | Avcılar | Bağcılar | Bahçelievler | Bakırköy | Bayrampaşa | Beşiktaş | Beykoz | Beyoğlu | Büyükçekmece | Çatalca | Eminönü | Esenler | Eyüp | Fatih | Gaziosmanpaşa | Güngören | Kadıköy | Kağıthane | Kartal | Küçükçekmece | Maltepe | Pendik | Sarıyer | Silivri | Sultanbeyli | Şile | Şişli | Tuzla | Ümraniye | Üsküdar | Zeytinburnu |
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