Ilıca is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of

Çeşme Çeşme, officially the Çeşme Municipality, is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 285 km2, and its population is 48,924 (2022). It sits at Turkey's westernmost end, on a promontory on t ...

İzmir Province İzmir Province () 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 districts out of 30 in to ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its population is 1,189 (2022). It is a large resort area in the extreme western tip of Turkey. A township apart in practically all its aspects, Ilıca administratively depends the municipality of the district center of Çeşme, at a distance of 5 km to the west. Ilıca started out as a settlement towards the end of the 19th century, initially as a retreat for wealthy people, especially from

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, during summer holidays. Today, it is a popular destination for many. Its name makes reference to its famed

thermal springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by cir ...

, some of which are in the sea. As the thermal waters come out of the sea bed and mix with the sea water adding minerals very close to the Ilica Beach, swimming at Ilica Beach is ideal for the skin. Ilica is also home to mud baths which is known to cure many illnesses such as rheumatism, metabolism illnesses and gynaecological diseases. Mentioned by Pausanias and

Charles Texier Félix Marie Charles Texier (22 August 1802, Versailles – 1 July 1871, Paris) was a French historian, architect and archaeologist. Texier published a number of significant works involving personal travels throughout Asia Minor and the Middle Eas ...

, Ilıca thermal springs are also notable in

for having been the subject of the first scientifically based analysis in the

Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...

of a thermal spring, published in 1909 by Cemal Yusuf. By his time the thermal springs were well-known both internationally, scientific and journalistic literature having been published in

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and in

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

, and across Ottoman lands, since the construction here of a still-standing

yalı A yalı (, from Greek ''yialí'' (mod. ''yialós''), literally "seashore, beach") is a house or mansion built right on the waterside (almost exclusively seaside, particularly on the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul) and usually built with an archit ...

associated with

Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali (4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849) was the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Albanians, Albanian viceroy and governor who became the ''de facto'' ruler of History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty, Egypt from 1805 to 1848, widely consi ...

's son Tosun Pasha who had sought a cure in Ilıca before his premature death. Ilıca also has a fine beach, about 1.5 km long, as well as favorable wind conditions which make Ilıca, together with the neighboring Alaçatı, an internationally prized location for

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gain ...

. A unique feature of Ilıca Beach is its shallow and warm waters allowing swimmers to wade up to 100 meters out to sea. Image:Looking_southwest_over_Ilica_2007-08-19.jpg, Looking southwest over Ilıca Image:Ilica_on_the_highway_from_Cesme_to_Izmir_2007-08-08.jpg, Ilıca seen from the highway from Çeşme to Izmir Image:Traffic_jam_in_Ilica_2007-08-18.jpg, Traffic jam on Ilıca's shopping mile Image:Sunset_over_Ilica_looking_west_towards_Cesme_2007-08-17.jpg, Sunset over Ilıca looking west towards Çeşme

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilica Neighbourhoods in Çeşme District Populated coastal places in Turkey Fishing communities in Turkey