Avşa Island ( tr, Avşa Adası) or Türkeli is a Turkish

island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

in the southern

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the ...

with an area of about . It was the classical and

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 Constantin ...

Aphousia ( el, Ἀφουσία or Ἀφησιά) and was a place of exile during the Byzantine period. The Greek inhabitants fled to Sarti Chalkidiki after the 1923 population exchange. The island belongs to the

Marmara District Marmara is an archipelagic district of Balıkesir Province, Turkey. It comprises Marmara, Avşa, Ekinlik and Paşalimanı Paşalimanı Island ( tr, Paşalimanı Adası), formerly Halone ( gr, Ἁλώνη), is a small List of islands of Turkey, ...

Balıkesir Province Balıkesir Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey with coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean. Its adjacent provinces are Çanakkale to the west, İzmir to the southwest, Manisa to the south, Kütahya to the southea ...

in northwestern Turkey. It is a popular domestic tourist destination, especially for tourists from

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. The local population is around 2,000 according to the last census, but during the summer season the number of visitors increases as far as forty to fifty thousand.

Transportation

The island is within reach from

by ship and ferry. It is also accessible from

Erdek Erdek (formerly known as ''Artàke'', el, Αρτάκη) is a town and district of Balıkesir Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The population was 34,000 in 2010. Located on the Kapıdağ Peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of E ...

and

Tekirdağ Tekirdağ (; see also its other names) is a city in Turkey. It is located on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, in the region of East Thrace. In 2019 the city's population was 204,001. Tekirdağ town is a commercial centre with a harbou ...

by motorboat.

Location

The exact location of Avşa island is shown in the following map in red color. The larger island north of Avşa is the island of Marmara and the island to the east is Paşalimanı.

External links

* * Islands of the Sea of Marmara Islands of Turkey Populated places in Balıkesir Province Islands of Balıkesir Province {{Balıkesir-geo-stub

Transportation

Location

See also

External links