Sultanhisar is a town and a small district of
Aydın Province in the
Aegean region of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
, 30 km east of the city of
Aydın on the road to
Denizli.
History
The first settlement here was the ancient city of
Nysa in Asia (on the Maeander), founded in the
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
period and continuing to thrive under the
Ancient Romans
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 ...
, also as bishopric, where the geographer
Strabo was educated. Nysa is 3 km from the modern town of Sultanhisar, which was founded by the
Seljuk Turks
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes
by the Turk ...
in 1270 and brought into the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
in 1425.
Geography and economy
Sultanhisar is an agricultural district in the
Büyük Menderes valley. The main products of the area are typical of the Aegean region: olives, figs, citrus fruits, grapes, strawberries etc. and the local industry is the processing of these products: olive oil pressing, spinning cotton, preparing and packing fruit, especially figs. Sultanhisar itself is a small town of 6,000 people on the
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 aggl ...
-
Afyon
Afyonkarahisar (, tr, afyon "poppy, opium", ''kara'' "black", ''hisar'' "fortress") is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyon Province. Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, south-west of Ankara along t ...
railway line. The local cuisine features typical Aegean dishes such as the bread-pancakes called
gözleme
Gözleme is a savory Turkish stuffed turnover. The dough is usually unleavened, and made only with flour, salt and water, but gözleme can be made from yeast dough as well. It is similar to bazlama, but is lightly brushed with butter or oil, w ...
. The town has a horticultural school of
Adnan Menderes University.
Towns in the district
*
Atça - Well-planned and tidy, with 7,600 people a larger town than Sultanhisar itself. One of Turkey's largest strawberry growing districts. There is an annual strawberry harvest festival.
*
Salavatlı -
Places of interest
*
Nysa on the Maeander - ruins of the ancient
Caria
Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid- Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined ...
n city, including a large theatre, bridges (
Nysa Bridge), baths and a gymnasium. The site is still being excavated, led by Professor
Vedat Idil of
Ankara University.
References
Sources and external links
*
local information
archaeology in Nysa
Sultanhisar information
Populated places in Aydın Province
Districts of Aydın Province
Sultanhisar District
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