Aydın

Aydın (formerly also Güzelhisar, Greek Αϊδίνιο Aidinio) is the administrative centre of the Turkish province of the same name on the Aegean coast, with a population of around 1,110,972. It is located 80 kilometres by road from the sea in the valley of the Great Meander (Turkish Büyük Menderes). Since a territorial reform in 2012, the city is a metropolitan municipality (Büyükşehir belediyesi) and thus identical to the province in terms of population and area.

South of the town, the side valley of the Çine Çayı River, about 5 km wide, flows into the town, where a railway line to Muğla also runs. To the north rises the nearby Aydın Mountains with peaks up to 1800 meters.

Aydın is connected to İzmir on the Aegean coast by the European Road E 87 (O-31). A tunnel crosses the Aydın Mountains. Upstream, it continues via Denizli to Antalya on the Turkish Riviera. Towards the south, the road branches off to the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.

Settlements

In addition to the county seat, the former central district included the five municipalities of Çeştepe, Dalama, Ovaeymir, Tepecik, Umurlu and the 55 villages of Alanlı, Alatepe, Ambarcık, Armutlu, Aşağıkayacık, Bademli, Balıkköy, Baltaköy, Böcekköy, Çayyüzü, Çiftlikköy, Dağeymiri, Danişment, Dereköy, Doğan, Eğrikavak, Emirdoğan, Gödrenli, Gölcük, Gölhisar, Gözpınar, Horozköy, Işıklı, İlyasdere, İmamköy, Kadıköy, Kalfaköy, Karahayıt, Karaköy, Kardeşköy, Kenker, Kırıklar, Kızılca, Kocagür, Konuklu, Kozalaklı, Kuloğullar, Kuyucular, Kuyulu, Mesutlu, Musluca, Ortaköy, Pınardere, Savrandere, Serçeköy, Sıralılar, Şahnalı, Şevketiye, Tepeköy, Terziler, Yağcılar, Yeniköy, Yılmazköy, Yukarıkayacık, Zeytinköy. After the territorial reform they are districts of the city.

On the northern outskirts of Aydın, the ruins of the ancient city of Tralleis can be visited.

History

According to Strabon, Tralles was founded by Thracians, but the city fell to the Achaemenid Empire after the Greek cities rebelled in vain. Sparta tried without success to conquer the city, which submitted to Alexander the Great in 334.

Alexander's general Antigonos I Monophthalmos held the city from 313 to 301 B.C. It was under the Seleucids until 190, when it passed to Pergamon. From 133 to 129 it supported Aristonikos against Rome.

In 129 BC, the city and all of western Asia Minor finally fell to Rome. Tralles was badly hit by an earthquake in 27 BC. Augustus assisted the city in its reconstruction, after which the local notables renamed it Kaisareia, a name the city bore for some time. The city was most famous in antiquity for its pottery.

The letters of Ignatius prove a Christian community for the 1st century. By 105 at the latest, a Polybios was bishop of Tralles (IgnTrall 3:3), and the region was finally Christianized during the 3rd and early 4th centuries. Bishops appear to be Heracleon (431), Maximus (451), Uranius (553), Myron (692), Theophylactus (787), Theophanes and Theopistus (both 9th century), and John (1230). An inscription attests to a synagogue.

After the Battle of Manzikert, the Seljuks first conquered Tralles after 1071, but the Byzantines under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos succeeded in reconquering it. However, the decline was unstoppable when Byzantium lost large areas in the eastern border region after 1265, especially the upper reaches of the Maiandros and thus the economically central part of the fertile valley. In 1278 Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos had the city rebuilt and it was to be named Andronikopolis or Palaiologopolis. The megas domestikos Michael Tarchaneiotes is said to have settled there 36,000 inhabitants of the surrounding areas.

But already in 1284 the Beylik of Mentesche managed to conquer the city. Over 20,000 inhabitants were sold as slaves. The Turks renamed the city Güzelhisar ('beautiful castle'). The Beylik of Aydın, which came into being in 1308, ruled western Turkey as far as Izmir. It is often referred to as an emirate.

These "emirs" were followed by the Ottomans. They subjugated the emirates of the west coast of Asia Minor in a large-scale campaign in 1390. But they were defeated by Timur in the Battle of Ankara in 1402. The victor moved to Ephesus in the autumn and destroyed Smyrna in December. Afterwards, his huge army returned to Ephesus, from where it plundered the surrounding territories. It did not leave the area again until the spring of 1403. After ten years of civil war, the Ottoman Empire stabilized again. In 1425, the Ottomans finally conquered the remnants of the Emirate and the city of Aydın.

Aydın became part of the Ottoman Empire, but was gradually eclipsed by Izmir. In 1827 it became the capital of its own Eyâlet. Unrest occurred, such as during Atçalı Kel Mehmet's reign (1829-1830), so the Eyâlet's headquarters were moved to Izmir. In 1864, Aydın became a sandsak, a kind of sub-province, and the provincial capital remained Izmir.In 1912, about 220,000 people lived in the Aydın sandsak, of whom 40,000-55,000 were Greeks. The first railway line was started in 1856 by the British Levant Company between Aydın and Smyrna (now Izmir).

During the Battle of Aydın between June 27 and July 4, 1919, the 3,500 members (1917) of the Jewish community were spared. Turkish resistance groups held out in the mountains. It was not until September 7, 1922 that the Turkish army recaptured the badly damaged city. In 1923, the Greeks were forced to leave the country, much like the Turks in Greece. The Greek army had a fire set before they left. In the process, only three of 8,000 houses remained intact.

Until the early 1920s, about 3,000 Jews lived in Aydın. They had to flee during the expulsion of the Greeks and were not allowed to return afterwards. Their property was confiscated as "abandoned property".