Timeline of İzmir

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This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness.
Revisions and sourced additions are welcome.

Below is a sequence of some of the events that affected the history of the city of İzmir (historically also Smyrna);

Date Occurrence
circa 6000-4000 BC İzmir region's first Neolithic and mid-Chalcolithic settlements in Yeşilova Höyük and the adjacent Yassıtepe Höyük, within the boundaries of the present-day Bornova district at midway in the plain that extends starting from the tip of the Gulf of İzmir, last for at least two millennia.
starting circa 3000 BC First traces of settlement are attested in the mound (Höyük) called Tepekule, or under the same name as its neighborhood (Bayraklı), in the northeastern corner of Gulf of İzmir's end. The small hill, forming a peninsula at the time, will later become the location of Old Smyrna.

Mount Sipylus (Mount Spil) is dominated by the "Weeping Rock", which is associated with Niobe, the daughter of the Lydian Tantalus, the first recorded ruler of the region of İzmir.

A port city unravels since millenia in the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir as narrow as a strait in its end as seen here from Mount Yamanlar.

Homer was also called Melesigenes (son of Meles) by the name of the brook which flows through the city and still carries the same name.
Date Occurrence
circa 1440 BC The first urban settlement commanding the Gulf of İzmir, associated with the Lydian Tantalus and which was possibly named "Naulochon", and deriving its wealth from the region's mineral reserves, is founded on present-day Mount Yamanlar (also called western Sipylus). A tomb and an altar and a tomb, named respectively the "Tomb of Tantalus" and the "Throne of Pelops" situated near the crater lake on top of the mountain (Karagöl) have reached our day. Another vestige of the same period is a rock-cut carving in Karabel locality between Kemalpaşa and Torbalı more to the south, which is Hittite.
est. circa 1370 BC The proto-Lydians led by Tyrrhenus, obliged to leave their land due to famine, build themselves ships in present-day İzmir and sail away in search of new homes and better sustenance, to finally arrive to Umbria where, according to one account (Herodotus), they lay the foundations of the future Etruscan civilization.
1362 BC Pelops, the son of Tantalus, abandons the city founded by his father. His sister Niobe remains associated with the "Weeping Rock" on Mount Sipylus, a national park today.
circa 1200 BC First Hellenic colonists begin to appear along the western coasts of Anatolia.
est. circa 1194 BC - 1184 BC Trojan War, some of whose wounds are healed in the thermal springs in present-day Balçova district of İzmir, Greeks under Agamemnon having been advised the baths by an oracle. The still highly popular "Agamemnon Baths" is also the place where, reportedly, Asclepius first began to prophetise.[1]
est. circa 688 BC Refugees from the Ionian city of Colophon, admitted inside Smyrna by the city's Aeolian inhabitants, chase the natives, by deceit according to Herodotus, and Smyrna becomes the thirteenth city state of the Ionian union.
circa 600 BC The Lydian king Alyattes II captures Smyrna along with several other Ionian cities and the city is sacked and destroyed, its inhabitants forced to move to the countryside to live for a time in "village-like fashion". The recent research and restoration works in Old Smyrna by Ekrem Akurgal indicate that the city-temple dedicated to Athena, built a few decades before, saw only slight damage in the Lydian capture, was repaired swiftly and continued to be used.
circa 570 BC Smyrniots begin to return to the city.
circa 540 BC The Median general Harpagus, serving the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great captures Symrna along with other regions in Anatolia, and destroys the city once again.
333 BC Alexander the Great conquers Smyrna, moves the city from its rather isolated location at the end of the gulf to the southern shore from where the future city will expand. Legends attribute the move for relocation to a dream of Alexander.
323 - 280 BC In the division of the provinces after Alexander's death, Antigonus I Monophthalmus receives Smyrna, along with Phrygia, Pamphylia and Lycia. It is his defeater, Lysimachus, King of Asia Minor between 301–281 BC, who displays a genuine interest to the city, initiating widescale public works in the intention of transforming it into an international portuary and cultural center on a par with Alexandria and Ephesus. Lysimachus even names the city, for a time, under his daughter's name, "Euredikeia".
280 BC In the climate of uncertainty reigning between Lysimachus's death and the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus I Soter's takeover, Smyrniots declare their independence for a brief period.
278 BC Galatians, arriving from Thrace, capture Smyrna and ransack the city. Smyrna returns to Seleucid control after their victory over the Gauls.
241 BC Smyrna adheres to Attalus I, King of Pergamon.
190 BC Smyrna is transferred under Roman authority along with Pergamon. Eager to cultivate Roman connections, Smyrna becomes the first city in Asia to build a temple to the honor of the goddess Roma.
130 BC With the death of last King of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon, Smyrna is taken under direct Roman administration.
78 BC Cicero visits Roman Smyrna.
0 .
178 A violent earthquake shakes Smyrna to its cores, causing immense damage and casualties. The city was rebuilt in a single year with the help of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, according to the orator Aelius Aristides.
395 Following the death of Theodosius I, when the political division between Eastern and Western Roman Empires acquires a permanent nature, Smyrna becomes part of the Eastern Roman Empire.
1079 First Seljuk Turkish horsemen begin to appear along the western regions of Anatolia, a few years after the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan's 1071 victory over the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Malazgirt and following his designation of Anatolia for seizure by Suleyman I of Rûm, son of a former contender to his throne, Kutalmış.
1081 Turkish forces depending Süleyman Bey and under the command of Çaka Bey (Tzachos in Byzantine sources[2]) capture İzmir (Smyrna) and immediately build a navy, the first ever recorded naval force in Turkish history, to harry the Aegean Sea and its coasts.
1097 The First Crusade siege of Nicaea (İznik) and the subsequent crusader victory in the First Battle of Dorylaeum allow the Byzantine forces under Alexios I Komnenos's brother-in-law John Doukas to recover much of western Anatolia, re-capturing Smyrna (İzmir), Chios, Rhodes, Mytilene, Samos, Ephesus, Philadelphia, and Sardis.
1100 Çaka Bey takes back İzmir (Smyrna).
1102 Çaka Bey dies and the Byzantine forces take back Smyrna (İzmir), in what becomes the starting point of a century of relative stability for the city and the region.
1231-1235 Emperor (of Nicaea) John III Doukas Vatatzes builds a new castle (Neon Kastron, later to be named "Saint Peter" by the Genoese, and "Okkale" by the Turks) that commands the now silted up inner bay of the city (present-day Kemeraltı bazaar zone). The Emperor spends much time in the summer palace he had had built in nearby Nymphaion (present-day Kemalpaşa) and dies there in 1254.
1261 In the same year as his expulsion of the Latin Empire and re-capture of Constantinople, the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, seeking an ally against the danger posed by the Venetians and the papacy, signs the Treaty of Nymphaion with the Genoese and accords them considerable privileges within the empire's realm, commercial or otherwise, including that of setting up their own districts in the capital and in Smyrna. Galata quarter across the Golden Horn, to extend later on to the whole of Pera, present-day Beyoğlu, and Smyrna's core area along the inner bay with its castle become virtually independent Genoese possessions.
1308 Turkish ascendancy in Western Anatolia re-surges after two centuries and the Beylik of Aydınoğlu is founded with its capital in Birgi.
1317 Aydınoğlu Mehmet Bey captures İzmir's upper castle of Kadifekale from Byzantine forces.
1329 The Genoese merchants hand over the keys of the port castle (Okkale, Saint Peter) to Aydınoğlu Umur Bey.
1333 Ibn Battuta visits İzmir.
1334-1345 Umur Bey transforms the Beylik of Aydınoğlu into a serious naval power with base in İzmir and poses a threat particularly for Venetian possessions in the Aegean Sea. Venetians organize an alliance uniting several European parties (Sancta Unio), composed notably of the Knights Templar, which organizes five consecutive attacks on İzmir and the Western Anatolian coastline controlled by Turkish states. In between, it is the Turks who organize maritime raids directed at Aegean islands.[3].
1348 Umur Bey dies and his brother and successor Hızır Bey concludes on 18 August an agreement with the Sancta Unio which, following its approval by the Pope, gives the Knights Templar the right to control and use the port castle (Saint Peter, Okkale).
1390 Ottoman sultan Bayezid I (the Thunderbolt) comes to İzmir shortly after he ascends the throne and smoothly captures the upper castle of Kadifekale. İzmir becomes Ottoman partially, with the exception of the port castle, and for the time, temporarily, for a decade.
1402 Three months after his victory over the Ottomans in the Battle of Ankara, Tamerlane comes to İzmir, lays a six-week siege on the port castle (Okkale, Saint Peter) in the unique battle of his career against a Christian power, captures the castle and destroys it. He hands the city over to its former rulers, the Aydınoğlu, as he had done for other Anatolian lands taken over by the Ottomans.
1416 Aydınoğlu (cited more often as İzmiroğlu) Cüneyd Bey re-builds Okkale in the intention of turning it into his power base, at the same time as he uses every occasion to hamper the resurgence of Ottoman power.
1425 Ottoman sultan Murad II has İzmiroğlu Cüneyd Bey executed, puts an end to the Beylik of Aydınoğlu, and re-establishes Ottoman authority over İzmir, this time definite. For their aid in Cüneyd Bey's demise, the Knights Templar press the sultan for renewed authority over the port castle (Okkale), but the sultan refuses, giving them the permission to build another castle in Petronium (Bodrum) instead.
1472 On 13 September, a Venetian fleet under Pietro Mocenigo, one of the greatest Venetian admirals, captures and destroys İzmir in a surprise attack, along with Foça and Çeşme. The Ottoman investment into İzmir will remain hesitant for more than a century, until the 17th century building of Sancakkale castle at a key location commanding access to the city and assuring its security.
1592 Aydınoğlu Yakub Bey, a descendant of the formerly ruling dynasty, builds the oldest major Ottoman landmark in İzmir, the Hisar Mosque in Kemeraltı, adjacent to the decaying port castle of Okkale.
1605 The first attested presence in community of Sephardi Jews, descendants of those evicted from Spain in 1492, in İzmir.
1605-1606 İzmir is menaced by the Jelali Revolts of Kalenderoğlu, Arap Said and Canbolat.
Audience by the Qadi of the French Consul of İzmir in a 17th century engraving by Jean du Mont
Audience by the Qadi of the French Consul of İzmir in a 17th century engraving by Jean du Mont
Date Occurrence
1619 The French consulate in İzmir opens, moving in from Sakız (Chios).
1621 The English consulate in İzmir opens, moving in from Sakız (Chios).
1624-1626 İzmir is menaced by corsairs in three consecutive years, who leave each time after having levied a ransom, aggravating considerations for the city's safety.
1650-1665 The construction by the Ottoman Empire of Sancakkale castle at a key location commanding access to the furthermost waters of the Gulf of İzmir, thus assuring İzmir's security and greatly improving its fortunes.
1657 Jean-Baptiste Tavernier visits İzmir for the second time and for a longer period. According to the detailed account he gave, İzmir then had a population of 90,000 of which 60,000 were Turks, and 15,000 Greeks[4]
1671 Evliya Çelebi visits İzmir.
1676-1677 A great plague epidemic, the first known pandemic on record for Ottoman İzmir claims 30,000 lives in İzmir and Manisa.
1678 Antoine Galland visits İzmir during his second Oriental tour. He writes the manuscript "Voyage a Smyrne" which will remain unedited until the year 2000.
1678 Exception made of probable presence in the region during Byzantine times, a community of Armenians is attested for the first time in Ottoman İzmir, refugees who had sought asylum from the rule of Safavid Shah Abbas I of Persia and were generously welcomed by the Ottoman Empire. On the eve of the Great Earthquake, estimates made for İzmir's population reached upwards of 80,000 in the ratio of seven Turks, two Greeks, one Jew and one Armenian, with other nationalities, many of whom played a pivotal role in shaping the city's fortunes, totalling barely a thousand.[5]
1688 Two successive earthquakes of great magnitude on 10 July and 31 July and a tsunami that ensued after the second causes great damage and shakes İzmir to its cores. The casualties number in the tens of thousands, the commercial activity in the city stops for years, and Sancakkale will have to be rebuilt. The earthquake will also trigger a movement among foreign merchants to move their residences to the İzmir suburb of Buca, and later on, also to Bornova.
İzmir 1714 in an engraving by Henri Abraham Chatelain
İzmir 1714 in an engraving by Henri Abraham Chatelain
Date Occurrence
1707 Established in the city only since decades, foreign merchants organize a riot centered in Buca. The riot leads in 1716 to the assignment in İzmir of Köprülü Abdullah Pasha, the first Ottoman administrator of the city who bore the title of pasha.
1712 and 1717 Two successive plague epidemics. The one in 1712 is particularly deadly and claims 10,000 lives.
1739 English traveller and anthropologist Richard Pococke visits İzmir.
1744 The completion of the building of the still-standing caravanserai of Kızlarağası Han in Kemeraltı.
1778 A violent earthquake on 3 July and an ensuing fire that lasts until 8 July destroys the city.
1803-1816 Katipzade family, who control İzmir since the 1750s, reach the summit of their power with Katipzade Mehmed Pasha who rule the city and its vicinity under the official title of ayan accorded by the Sultan. They are the builders of the first governor's mansion in the city and the adjacent Yalı Mosque of very small dimensions in Konak Square, a symbol of İzmir to this day. Katipzade Mehmed Pasha is executed by the Sultan in 1816.
1804 The completion of the building of the still-standing caravanserai of Çakaloğlu Han in Kemeraltı.
1806-1808 Chateaubriand (1806) and Lord Byron (1808) briefly visit İzmir.
1812-1816 A four-year plague epidemic claims 45,000 lives in İzmir region.
1823-1827 İzmir's first newspaper, named "Smyrnéen" at first and "Spectateur orientale" later is published in French for four years.
1831 A cholera epidemic claims 3,000 lives in İzmir region, particularly among the Jewish community. Two still-standing landmarks of the city owe their existence to the epidemic: St. Roch Hospital and Monastery, the present-day Piçhane building and İzmir Etnography Museum, and the Jewish Hospital, both in Karataş. The hospital will become a pole of attraction that paves the way for a concentration of Jewish population in the neighborhood.
1836 Charles Texier visits İzmir.
1837 İzmir's last great plague epidemic claims 5,000 lives, especially among the Turkish population. A quarantine administration for incoming ships will be put in place as a consequence of the epidemic, in a quarter of the city that will be named Karantina.
1840 The exports from the port of Trabzon exceeds those from İzmir which thus loses its leadership among Ottoman ports for exports for the first time as far back as the records are kept.
1850 İzmir becomes the vilayet center for the first time and for a brief period. The vilayet is still called under the name of its former center, Aydın.
1850 Gustave Flaubert visits İzmir, noting, after having watched the sunset from Kadifekale, "qu'il n'en avait jamais vu de si belle".

A Turkish quarter in 19th century İzmir: Kadifekale

A Greek quarter in 19th century İzmir: Göztepe (Enopi), with Susuzdede (Agios Agapi) hill in the background

A Jewish quarter in 19th century İzmir: Karataş

A European quarter in 19th century İzmir: Bornova
Date Occurrence
1850-1851 Alphonse de Lamartine visits İzmir for a second time (the first in 1833) and having fallen under the spell of the city and the country, buys a farm in Tire that he manages for a time before returning to France where he writes important works related to Turkey.
1856 The first horse races in the modern sense start to be organized in Buca.
1856-1867 The construction of the first railroad connection in the Ottoman Empire, between İzmir (in partance from the simultaneously built Alsancak train station) and Aydın (130 km), is contracted out to a British company who will finish it in eleven years.
1863-1866 The construction of the second railroad connection in the Ottoman Empire, between İzmir (in partance from the simultaneously built Basmane train station) and Turgutlu (93 km), contracted out at first to a British, then to a French company, who manages to finish it in three years, a few months before İzmir-Aydın line.
1865 The quarter of Karataş is opened for residential use and becomes, almost immediately and practically exclusively, İzmir's Jewish quarter.
1867 İzmir becomes the vilayet center for the second time and definitely. The vilayet will continue to be under the name of its former center, Aydın, until the demise of the Ottoman Empire. Instability will characterize the first decades of the governorship in İzmir, with, for example, five consecutive governors only for the year 1875.
1868-1895 A municipal administration is constituted in İzmir, in line with the Ottoman reforms in the matter. İzmir municipality will only mature in time, becoming active as of 1874, being scinded in two in 1880 to administer the more westernized city core and the more traditional suburbs separately, being reunited in 1889, and possessing its own building only in 1891. A stable municipal administration in İzmir is generally admitted to start a generation after its founding under Eşref Pasha (1895-1907) [6].
1867-1876 Upon the destruction by a seismic wave of the previous quays built in wood, start of the construction of new port installations. With the project, completed in ten years by a French company and by British engineering, the wharf (Pasaport Wharf), as well as a 3250 m long combination of a landing stage, of a street served by a tram line and of an esplanade (Kordon) comes into existence, all built on land gained from the sea, and profoundly changing the city's look. The final remains of the old port castle (Okkale) and former yalı type residences along Kordon are demolished to provide space for the wharf and the street, along which new buildings of western tastes and styles will be rapidly built. The French customs house built within the project, reportedly designed by Gustave Eiffel, is today's Konak Pier upmarket shopping center.
1884 Beginning of interurban ferry services between İzmir proper and Karşıyaka, under the imperial lease of "Hamidiye".
1886 In a work of engineering of considerable scale for its time, the course of the River Gediz in its delta is shifted northwards, thus preventing it from joining the sea inside the Gulf of İzmir, where the shallows caused by the silt the river brought had started to jeopardize İzmir's portuary future.
1890 The first recorded football match in Turkey is played in Bornova, İzmir, between local youths and British sailors on shore leave.
1902 The Clock Tower in Konak Square is built for the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Sultan Abdülhamid II's reign. It will become the city's symbol.[7]
1907 Asansör building in Karataş, one of İzmir's landmarks, is erected by the wealthy banker Nesim Levi Bayraklıoğlu as a public service.
1915 In a naval campaign that involved İzmir directly during the World War I, a British fleet commanded by the Vice-Admiral Peirse arrives off the deep end of the Gulf with armoured cruiser HMS Euryalus, pre-dreadnoughts HMS Triumph and HMS Swiftsure, a seaplane carrier, and minesweepers and bombs defence positions between 5 March - 9 March causing six casualties among Turkish soldiers. The fleet's tasks are to destroy the protecting forts and clear the approach minefields, neither of which are accomplished. Allied demands transmitted through the U.S. consul in İzmir George Horton for surrender of the city are rebuffed by the governor Evrenoszade Rahmi Bey and on the 15th, the force withdraws. [8]
1919 - 1922 Occupation of İzmir as of 15 May 1919, Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).
1922 Re-capture of İzmir by the Turkish army on 9 September 1922. Great Fire of Smyrna between 13 September and 17 September. Appointment of the first governor of Ankara Turkish Grand National Assembly government and by extension of Republican Turkey on 20 September.
1923 Signature between Greek and Turkish delegations of the agreement for a Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the frame of Lausanne Conference on 30 January.

Streets of İzmir's core

historic and cosmopolitan

neighborhood of Alsancak

(formerly also known as "Punta" or "La Pointe")
Date Occurrence
1923 İzmir Economic Congress held under the chairmanship of Mustafa Kemal Pasha between 17 February - 3 March and laying the foundations of the economic policy for the early years of the Republic of Turkey established the same year.
1929 İzmir Alsancak Stadium is built over part of former Darağacı (Gallows) quarter [9].
1936 The fifth İzmir International Fair is the first that is held at its present location of "Kültürpark" where it acquires the proportions of an ongoing important annual commercial and cultural event of international scale.
1954 Start of the construction of the Port of Alsancak, still used and extended, and privatized in 2007.
1955 Ege University, İzmir's first university to start courses, is founded with present-day campus in Bornova.
1964 The multi-use stadium İzmir Atatürk Stadyumu, Turkey's largest at the time (today the second largest) is built in view of the Mediterranean Games. It will be refurbished in depth in 2005 for the Universiade.
1971 İzmir hosts the Mediterranean Games.
1982 Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir's second largest, is founded with present-day campus in Buca.
1987 İzmir's new airport, Adnan Menderes Airport, enters into service.
1990 Aegean Free Zone, the first production-based free zone in Turkey and the leader among the 19 others, opens as a Turkish-U.S. joint-venture in İzmir, to reach a total portfolio of 302 notable companies by 2006, generating more than $4 billion annually in international trade. It also houses the world's fifth Space Camp.
1992 İzmir's third university and first institute of technology, İzmir Institute of Technology is founded, with present-day campus in Urla.
1998 İzotaş, the new bus terminal in İzmir's Altındağ suburb, a city within the city in practical terms, enters into service.
2002 İzmir's fourth and fifth universities, İzmir University of Economics, with campus in Balçova, and Yaşar University, are founded. Both are private sector initiatives.
2004 In keeping with a move for decentralization of administrative services in the rapidly growing city, İzmir Hall of Justice moves from Konak Square to its new premises, the largest and the most modern in Turkey, in Bornova district.
2005 İzmir hosts the Summer World University Games (Universiade).
September 2006 New international terminal in Adnan Menderes Airport enters into service.

[edit] Sources

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ George E. Bean. Aegean Turkey: An archaeological guide ISBN 978-0510032005, 1967 (in (English)). Ernest Benn, London. 
  2. ^ Charles M. Brand. Dumbarton Oaks Papers Vol. 43, 1989 (1989), pp. 1-25 The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries (English).
  3. ^ Dr. Hans Theunissen. Section V of "Ottoman-Venetian diplomatics, the Ahd-Names" Venice and the Turcoman Begliks of Menteşe and Aydın (English). Leiden University, The Netherlands, 1998.
  4. ^ limited preview Charles Joret. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, cuyer, baron d'Aubonne, chambellan du Grand lecteur ISBN 1421247224, 2005 (in (French)). Adamant Media Corporation. 
  5. ^ limited preview Sonia P. Anderson. An English Consul in Turkey: Paul Rycaut at Smyrna, 1667-1678 ISBN 019820132X, 1989 (in (English)). Oxford University Press. 
  6. ^ Erkan Serçe. İzmir'de Belediye (1868-1945) Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e (Municipal administration in İzmir (1895-1945): From Tanzimat to the Republic) ISBN 9756981067, 1998 (in (Turkish)). Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir. 
  7. ^ Prof.Dr. İnci Kuyulu Ersoy. Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Turkish Art, Utrecht, The Netherlands (full text and photos) Orientalist buildings in İzmir (English). M.Kiel, N. Landmann, H. Theunissen (eds).
  8. ^ Naval History War in the Mediterranean - 1915 (English). Turkish Historical Society (TTK) İzmir Bombardımanı (Turkish).
  9. ^ Radikal. Article Üstü stad, altı mezar (Stadium on the surface, cemetery below) (Turkish). Radikal.