The Gulf of İzmir ( tr, İzmir Körfezi), formerly known as the Gulf of

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

, is a

gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...

on the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

, with its inlet between the Karaburun Peninsula and the mainland area 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 ...

. It is in length by in breadth, with an excellent anchorage. The city of

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 ...

, an important port city of

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 ...

, surrounds the end of the gulf.

Geography

The northern limit of the Gulf of İzmir is defined as a 13 nmi line running from Cape Kanlıkaya () of the Karaburun Peninsula, to Cape Aslan () of

. The surface area of the gulf is , while its shore length is .

Uzunada Uzunada or Uzun ada (literally "long island") is an island situated at the entry of the Gulf of İzmir on the west coast of Turkey. It is situated between the Karaburun Peninsula, Turkey in the west, and the district of Foça in the east. Str ...

located in the Gulf of İzmir is Turkey's fourth largest island. Other islands of the gulf include

Hekim Island Hekim Island (a.k.a. ''Kilise Island'') is an Aegean Sea, Aegean island of Turkey. It is in the gulf of İzmir and a part of Urla, İzmir, Urla ilçe (district) of İzmir Province at . It is the second largest of the islands in the gulf (collecti ...

Foça Islands Foça Islands is an island group in the Bay of Izmir, Turkey, outside the town of Foça. The largest island is Orak Orak may refer to: * A fictional computer in ''Rogue Planet'', a Dan Dare story * One of the Rabbit Islands * An islet in Kayange ...

( Orak Island,

Fener Ada Fener Ada (literally "Lighthouse island") is part of the Foça Islands group. It holds one of the beaches in the Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or " ...

Incir Ada Incir Ada (, literally "fig island") is a Turkish island and a part of the Foça Islands group. It is a popular destination for recreation by locals and tourists . The islands and surrounding bays hold the only seal colonies in Turkey. See a ...

Metalik Ada Metalik Ada (literally "Metallic Island") is a Turkish island. It is part of the Foça Islands group in the Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adala ...

), Çiçek Islands ( Yassıca Island, Pırnarlı Island, İncirli Island, Akça),

Karantina Island Karantina Island ( tr, Karantina Adası, literally "Quarantine Island") is an island in the Gulf of İzmir, Turkey. The island is a part of Urla ilçe (district) of İzmir Province at . Its surface area is and its distance to mainland ( Karabur ...

Yılan Island Yılan Island ( tr, Yılan Adası, literally Snake Island) is a Mediterranean island in Turkey. It is administratively a part of Kaş ilçe (district) of Antalya Province at . At the past it was one of the Xenagorou islands ( grc, Ξεναγό ...

, and

Büyük Ada Büyük Ada (literally for "Big Island" in Turkish, a.k.a. ''Sahip Island'') is the largest island which can be seen from the town center of Karaburun town in İzmir, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( ...

. Seventeen rivers empty into the gulf, most notably the Gediz and the Meles. Gediz Delta, which is a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Levent Marina is the only marina located in the gulf.

Geology

The Gulf of İzmir was formed during the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

geological period. The east-west direction pit of the gulf was formed as a result of breaking the faults.

Flora and fauna

The northeastern coast of the gulf is the habitat of the

Mediterranean monk seal The Mediterranean monk seal (''Monachus monachus'') is a monk seal belonging to the family Phocidae. , it is estimated that fewer than 700 individuals survive in three or four isolated subpopulations in the Mediterranean, (especially) in the Ae ...

İzmir Birds Paradise 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 ...

in the north of the gulf and Çakalburnu Lagoon in the south are the breeding ground of the birds.

History

It is known that the first settlements around the gulf were in the

Neolithic Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. The most known settlement is

, which was established around present-day

Bayraklı Bayraklı is a metropolitan district of İzmir and a district of İzmir Province in Turkey. Bayraklı was turned into a district by a decree of the Government of Turkey on March 6, 2008. Previously, it was a quarter within İzmir's Karşıyaka dis ...

in 3300s BC.

Timur Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...

, who came to İzmir after the

Battle of Ankara The Battle of Ankara or Angora was fought on 20 July 1402 at the Çubuk plain near Ankara, between the forces of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I and the Emir of the Timurid Empire, Timur. The battle was a major victory for Timur, and it led to the ...

, seized İzmir Port Castle and its surroundings in December 1402 and ordered the destruction of the castle. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, naval battles occurred between Sancakburnu Castle and Urla in March 1915 and around Uzunada in May 1916.

Economy

Port of İzmir The Port of İzmir ( tr, İzmir Limanı), alternatively known as Port of Alsancak, is a seaport in İzmir, Turkey. It is situated in the Gulf of İzmir. History İzmir was an important port of the Ottoman Empire and the first quay was constructed ...

is a cargo and passenger port located to the east of the gulf. It is the seventh largest port of the country in terms of container volume and thirteenth in terms of cargo tonnage. There are nine active passenger ferry quays in the gulf. The İZKARAY project, which envisages the joining of the two sides of the gulf with a bridge, an artificial island and a tunnel, will provide road and rail connections between

Balçova Balçova (pronounced Balchova), is a district of Izmir Province in Turkey. It is one of the eleven districts in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Izmir, the smallest in terms of area. Balçova is a fully urbanized at the rate of 100,0 per cent an ...

and

Çiğli Çiğli (''Silleon'' in Greek) is a metropolitan district of İzmir in western Turkey. It covers the northern end of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality around the mouth of the River Gediz, across the Gulf of İzmir from the main city. The Gediz delt ...

districts.

Shipwrecks

There are five known shipwrecks in the Gulf of İzmir. At a depth of 16.4 meters off the Sancakburnu Castle, there are wrecks of two ships, one of which is 118 meters and the other is 86 meters long, which crashed into each other in 1957. There is another shipwreck located off Güzelbahçe at a depth of 42 meters, which was discovered at the beginning of 2017, thought to be a 78 meters long cargo ship that sank in the late 1800s. It is also stated that one to four ships were sunk in the gulf during the First World War. Dozens of shipwrecks off the Sancakburnu Castle were removed from the sea in 1967 and in the following years.

Pollution

In the period when 200,000 people lived around the gulf, the discharge of wastewater into the gulf did not cause any obvious problems. However, with the population exceeding 500,000 and industrialization, waste that has exceeded the capacity of the gulf to renew itself has begun to be discharged into the gulf. In this period, pollution became noticeable and the people could no longer swim in the gulf. With the population exceeding 1.7 million in the 1990s, the level of pollution has risen a lot and heavy metal traces were found in fish. In 1992, the treatment and sewage system, called the Grand Canal Project, started to be built by İZSU. Launched in October 2002, the system prevented waste water discharge to the gulf. By the 2010s, it was observed that the pollution in the gulf was removed and the marine life returned to normal. With the Gulf of İzmir Oceanographic Monitoring Project carried out by İZSU since 2000, the cleaning of the gulf is tracked.

Leisure

Sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

is supported by Karşıyaka S.K. and

Göztepe S.K. Göztepe Spor Kulübü (, Göztepe Sports Club), also known as Göztepe, is a Turkish sports club based in the Göztepe and Güzelyalı neighborhoods of İzmir. The "AŞ" refers to ''incorporated company'', as besides football, the club also ...

in the inner gulf. Yacht, sailing, canoe, rowing and dragon boat races are held in the gulf with the İzmir Gulf Festival, which is organized annually since 2017. The gulf hosts the

İnciraltı Sea Museum The İnciraltı Sea Museum is a naval museum in the İnciraltı neighborhood of Izmir's Balçova district in Turkey. Located near the İnciraltı Ozdilek Shopping Center, it was opened on July 1, 2007. Main attractions of the museum are two dec ...

and the Zübeyde Hanım Education and Museum Ship. There are nine

Blue Flag beach The Blue Flag is a certification by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) that a beach, marina, or sustainable boating tourism operator meets its standards. The Blue Flag is a trademark owned by FEE, which is a not-for-profit non-gov ...

es around the gulf (four in Foça, three in Karaburun, one in Güzelbahçe and one in Urla). There is a ban on diving in twelve points in the gulf to protect cultural and natural heritage.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gulf of Izmir Geography of İzmir Landforms of İzmir Province Izmir Izmir