Karaburun ( el, Αχιρλί, Achirlí) is a district and the center town of the same district in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
's
İzmir Province
İzmir Province ( tr, İzmir ili) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey in western Anatolia, situated along the Aegean coast. Its capital is the city of İzmir, which is in itself composed of the province's central 11 distri ...
. The district area roughly corresponds to the peninsula of the same name (
Karaburun Peninsula Karaburun Peninsula may refer to:
*Karaburun Peninsula, Albania, a peninsula in Albania
*Karaburun Peninsula, Turkey
Karaburun Peninsula is a peninsula in the extreme western end of Turkey, a component of the larger Urla-Karaburun-Çeşme Penin ...
) which spears north of the tourism resorts of neighboring
Çeşme
Çeşme () is a coastal town and the administrative centre of the district of the same name in Turkey's westernmost end, on a promontory on the tip of the peninsula that also carries the same name and that extends inland to form a whole with the ...
and its dependencies and west of the city of İzmir. In fact, the district area is one of the westernmost points of
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
. Karaburun town is situated close to the northern tip of the peninsula and checks the entry of the
Gulf of İzmir
The Gulf of İzmir ( tr, İzmir Körfezi), formerly known as the Gulf of Smyrna, is a gulf on the Aegean Sea, with its inlet between the Karaburun Peninsula and the mainland area of Foça. It is in length by in breadth, with an excellent anchor ...
with the town of
Foça
Foça is a town and district in Turkey's İzmir Province, on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast. The town of Foça is situated at about northwest of İzmir's city center. The district also has a township with its own municipality named Yenifoça (lite ...
, another important tourism resort, across the waters. The district's administrative zone is bordered by the districts of
Çeşme
Çeşme () is a coastal town and the administrative centre of the district of the same name in Turkey's westernmost end, on a promontory on the tip of the peninsula that also carries the same name and that extends inland to form a whole with the ...
and
Urla in its south and faces the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
island of
Chios
Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic ...
to its west.
Karaburun region is comparatively much less visited than Çeşme located in its south, its rate of urbanization at 20 per cent is the lowest across İzmir Province, although it provides an anticlimax to its southern neighbor and the associated attractions especially for those who want to escape the trails of mass tourism. The coasts of the peninsula have beautiful bays and pebble or sand beaches as yet often undiscovered by outsiders, although there is one
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
vacation village slightly to the north of the district center. Taken as a whole, in contrast with Çeşme, agriculture, fishing and livestock breeding, instead of tourism, remain the principal activities on which the district's economy is based. Karaburun's flora and fauna present particularities distinguishing it from the
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
n mainland. Karaburun's name echoes in Turkey a very high variety of flower breeds present across its area, and especially
narcissus
Narcissus may refer to:
Biology
* ''Narcissus'' (plant), a genus containing daffodils and others
People
* Narcissus (mythology), Greek mythological character
* Narcissus (wrestler) (2nd century), assassin of the Roman emperor Commodus
* Tiberiu ...
and
hyacinth
Hyacinth or Hyacinthus may refer to:
Nature Plants
* Hyacinth (plant), genus ''Hyacinthus''
** ''Hyacinthus orientalis'', common hyacinth
* Grape hyacinth, ''Muscari'', a genus of perennial bulbous plants native to Eurasia
* Hyacinth bean, ''Labl ...
.
Main features
The distance between Karaburun and
İzmir
İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...
center by way of land is 100 km (approximately 60 miles) and there are regular bus services and a three-lane modern
highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...
until the
toll
Toll may refer to:
Transportation
* Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway
** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use
** Road toll (historic)
The road toll was a historical fee charged to travellers and ...
near Çeşme. The rest of the road is narrow and curvy in some places and it may take up to two hours to reach Karaburun from İzmir. The country road is traced northwards along the eastern coast of the peninsula to reach
Mordoğan
Mordoğan is a sea-side township with own municipality in Karaburun district in Turkey's Izmir Province. The town is situated on the eastern shoreline of Karaburun Peninsula, İzmir, Karaburun Peninsula within the Gulf of İzmir at about twenty ki ...
first, which is, aside from Karaburun, the district's only other depending township with own municipality. After Karaburun, the same road continues towards the tip of the peninsula from where it heads west to reach the village of
Küçükbahçe.
History
The oldest name known for the region was
Mimas
Mimas may refer to:
*Mimas (Giant), son of Gaia in Greek mythology, one of the Gigantes
* Mimas (''Aeneid''), a son of Amycus and Theono, born the same night as Paris, who escorted Aeneas to Italy
*Karaburun, a town and district in Turkey, formerl ...
, in reference to the son of
Gaia
In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...
who was one of the
Giants
A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore.
Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to:
Mythology and religion
*Giants (Greek mythology)
*Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...
slain by
Hephaistos
Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter Burk ...
during the war between Gods and Giants in
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
.
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
mentions the "windy Mimas" mountain (present-day ''Bozdağ'') in his
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...
. The Mimas mountain is also associated with
Iris
Iris most often refers to:
*Iris (anatomy), part of the eye
*Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess
* ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
*Iris (color), an ambiguous color term
Iris or IRIS may also refer to:
Arts and media
Fictional enti ...
,
Leto
In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Leto (; grc-gre, Λητώ , ''Lētṓ'', or , ''Lātṓ'' in Ancient Greek dialects#Provenance, Doric Greek) is a goddess and the mother of Apollo, the god of music, and Artemis ...
and
Narcissus
Narcissus may refer to:
Biology
* ''Narcissus'' (plant), a genus containing daffodils and others
People
* Narcissus (mythology), Greek mythological character
* Narcissus (wrestler) (2nd century), assassin of the Roman emperor Commodus
* Tiberiu ...
. In
Ionia
Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian ...
n through to
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
times, the region also carried the names ''Stelar'' or ''Stylarius'', ''Caleberno'' by the
Genoese and ''Ahırlı'' during the
Ottoman era. There are different possibilities for the name Karaburun. One that is mentioned in the municipality web site is that it would be a modified form of Caleberno. Another possibility may have to do with the very translation of the Turkish name, which means "black cape", a fitting description especially for sailors who approach
Karaburun Peninsula Karaburun Peninsula may refer to:
*Karaburun Peninsula, Albania, a peninsula in Albania
*Karaburun Peninsula, Turkey
Karaburun Peninsula is a peninsula in the extreme western end of Turkey, a component of the larger Urla-Karaburun-Çeşme Penin ...
from open sea.
The region is rich in history although its only sizeable urban center from
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
, Byzantine through to
Ottoman times was in
Erythrai
Erythrae or Erythrai ( el, Ἐρυθραί) later Litri, was one of the twelve Ionian cities of Asia Minor, situated 22 km north-east of the port of Cyssus (modern name: Çeşme), on a small peninsula stretching into the Bay of Erythrae ...
. Today the village of
Ildırı stands in the ancient town's location and the village depends Çeşme. Traces of smaller settlements can also be traced back to the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
.
Karaburun is the most recently constituted district of İzmir, although the town of Karaburun was made into a municipality already in 1902.
According to the
1914 Ottoman population statistics, the district of Karaburun had a total population of 18,772, consisting of 9,934
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
and 8,838 Muslims.
Kemal Karpat
Kemal Haşim Karpat (15 February 1924, Babadag Tulcea, Romania – 20 February 2019, Manchester, New Hampshire, United States) was a Romanian- Turkish naturalised American historian and professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Earl ...
(1985)
Ottoman Population, 1830-1914, Demographic and Social Characteristics
The University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and po ...
, p. 174-175
Economy
Agriculture, fishing and livestock breeding remain the principal activities on which Karaburun's economy is based. The average yearly income level per inhabitant for the district was calculated at 3,673 US Dollars in 2007. Karaburun's trade relations with the outside world abroad remain modest, with total exports recorded as 26,319 US Dollars realized in 2007, mostly flowers, with also some exports of olive and olive oil and
artichokes
The globe artichoke (''Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus'' ),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the names French artichoke and green articho ...
. Underground reserves include
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
quarries, deposits of
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
,
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
for constructions and
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
for ceramics.
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
was also mined in the past. The district's total number of companies stood at 525 the same year. There was only one bank operating through one branch in Karaburun in 2007.
The total number of residences in Karaburun district was counted as 8,912, an important part constituted by secondary residences owned by seasonal inhabitants. The total accommodation capacity of the district is 982 beds, in which the depending municipality of Mordoğan has a sizable share. The level of literacy in Karaburun nears hundred per cent, and the district is advantaged by the rather comfortable number of students, 12 in 2007, per teacher. There was one doctor for 1,447 patients in Karaburun in 2007.
Other information
Nearer to Karaburun is the abandoned village of Sazak whose inhabitants were subject to the 1923
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...
in the frame of the
Treaty of Lausanne
The Treaty of Lausanne (french: Traité de Lausanne) was a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–23 and signed in the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially settled the conflic ...
. Sazak today is a
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
rarely visited by tourists from Karaburun.
The whole district is very quiet during winter when the population of Karaburun center falls back to the usual 2,500, with the owners of summer houses gone. Nevertheless, its spectacular gorges and heights makes the peninsula a favorite destination among trekkers in all seasons.
There is talk since years on starting
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
services from İzmir to these two centers of the peninsula, which would be quite practical by allowing visitors to avoid the difficult end-portion of the land route, but the project meets the opposition of the
dolmuş
In Turkey and Northern Cyprus, dolmuş () are share taxis that run set routes within and between cities.
Background
Their name is derived from Turkish for "seemingly stuffed" referencing the fact that in days past these taxis were often filled t ...
lobby
Lobby may refer to:
* Lobby (room), an entranceway or foyer in a building
* Lobbying, the action or the group used to influence a viewpoint to politicians
:* Lobbying in the United States, specific to the United States
* Lobby (food), a thick stew ...
.
See also
*
Karaburun Peninsula Karaburun Peninsula may refer to:
*Karaburun Peninsula, Albania, a peninsula in Albania
*Karaburun Peninsula, Turkey
Karaburun Peninsula is a peninsula in the extreme western end of Turkey, a component of the larger Urla-Karaburun-Çeşme Penin ...
*
September 2006 Karaburun, Turkey migrant boat disaster
References
External links
*
Sources
*
*
{{Authority control
Populated coastal places in Turkey
Populated places in İzmir Province
Tourist attractions in İzmir Province
Fishing communities in Turkey
Karaburun District
Districts of İzmir Province
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey