IZMIR (Smyrna)

Izmir (Old Smyrna), Turkey Attractions

Izmir is located on the west side of Turkey. In addition to its natural beauties, Izmir is one of the places worth exploring for history and archaeology enthusiasts. Due to the fact that it has hosted different cultures from Persians to Ancient Greeks, Romans to Ottomans for 8,500 years, İzmir offers all together historical values that days will not be enough to visit.

It has a lot of places to be visited such as Pergamon Ancient City, Red Hall, Asclepieon and Acropolis (Two important settlements in Bergama Ancient City), St. Polycarp Church, Philadelphia, Sardes (the prosperous ancient capital of the Lydian Empire known for legendary King Midas and his Golden Touch), Church of Sardes, Temple of Artemis, Velvet Castle, Pagan Temples and Altar of Zeus and, Thyatira(Akhisar) and more. All our tours to Izmir can go to different destinations in Izmir, so you should read the contents of the tours thoroughly.

According to Revelation, on the Greek island of Patmos, Jesus Christ instructs John of Patmos to: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” The churches in this context refers to the community or local congregations of Christians living in each city. You will visit Philadelphia with its famous church of Philadelphia which was an important place for the spreading of the Christian faith. Sardes, the wealthy capital of the ancient Lydian Empire and one of the most amazing sites in Izmir.

Pergamon (Pergamum) Ancient City is an important place for world history. In some ways, it is even pretended to be the world leader in its time. It was a very large and rich kingdom and later joined the Roman Empire. In fact, it was the eastern center of the Roman Empire for a short time before Ephesus.

Bergama has hosted many principles. For example, parchment (leather paper) was found here. Papirus trade was interrupted when the Egyptians found papyrus (a kind of paper) and the kingdom broke down. Subsequently, the first library in Asia was established here. It became the second largest library in the world with a collection of 200,000 volumes.
The amphitheater in the acropolis is known for being the steepest theater in the world. Its capacity was 10,000 people.