Izmir

İzmir 
Izmir is a city in the western extremity of Anatolia and the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. İzmir's metropolitan area extends along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir and inland to the north across Gediz River's of delta, to the east along an alluvial plain created by several small streams and to a slightly more rugged terrain in the south.

 The ancient city was known as Smyrna and the city was generally referred to as Smyrna in English, until the Turkish Postal Service Law of 28 March 1930 made "İzmir" the internationally recognized name.
The city of İzmir is composed of several metropolitan districts. Of these, Konak district corresponds to historical İzmir, this district's area having constituted the "İzmir Municipality" (Turkish: İzmir Belediyesi) area until 1984, Konak until then having been a name for a central neighborhood around Konak Square, still the core of the city.

 With the constitution of the "Greater İzmir Metropolitan Municipality" (Turkish: İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi), the city of İzmir became a compound bringing together initially nine, and more recently eleven metropolitan districts, namely Balçova, Bayraklı, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karabağlar, Karşıyaka, Konak and Narlıdere. Almost all of these settlements are former district centers or neighborhoods which stood on their own, with their own distinct features and temperament. In an ongoing processus, the Mayor of İzmir was also vested with authority over the areas of additional districts reaching from Bergama in the north to Selçuk in the south, bringing the number of districts to be considered as being part of İzmir to twenty-one under the new arrangements, two of these having been administratively included in İzmir only partially.

Today Izmir (EEZ-meer, pop. 3 million) is a mostly modern city with good hotels and restaurants, an interesting bazaar, a few small archeological sites, a big, busy Otogar (bus terminal), and an important airport south of the city on the way to Ephesus.

Some travelers use Izmir as a base to visit such regional sights as Bergama/ Pergamum, Çeşme & Alaçatı, Sardis, Ephesus & Kuşadası, Aphrodisias & Pamukkale, because Izmir has a great variety of hotels.