Turkey’s Kuşadası district in Aydın province aims to become one of the most preferred tourism centers in the world.
The picturesque city, which sits on an Aegean bay with an isthmus stretching out to Guvercinada Island and Mount Kazdağı rising up behind it, attracts thousands of tourists each year, said Yaşar Karabaca, Pier Management president.
He said six ship cruises brought more than 10,000 tourists in one day last week, proving that Kuşadası is currently one of the most preferred coastal sides of Turkey. The cruise ships included the “Navigator of the Seas,” “Azamara Quest,” “Wind Star,” “Nautica,” “Seven Seas Mariner” and “Aegean Odyssey.”
According to the Anatolia News Agency, among the 10,000 tourists who visited Kuşadası, most of them were from the United States.
While most of the tourists preferred to shop in the city center, some signed up for private tours and visited the Ephesus ancient city and the House of the Virgin Mary nearby in İzmir.
“This year Kuşadası has welcomed 630 cruise ships,” Ege Pier Company manager Aziz Güngör told Anatolia. “Ege Pier Company is one of the largest working with cruise ships and our pier has hosted 42 ships since the beginning of the year.
“It’s a very large number and according to official figures it is the busiest pier for cruise ships.”
For comparison, Güngör said the second busiest pier was Barcelona, serving 16 cruise ship companies. “Ege Pier Company is the first on the list and is the only pier serving 42 companies.”
To increase capacity, the company is making investments, Güngör said. “This year we invested $4.5 million to extend the length of the pier.”
With the expanded capacity, Ege Pier is ready to host the “Oasis of the Seas,” one of the largest cruise ships in the world, Güngör said. “The ship has room for 10,000 passengers and we have the capacity to host this ship at our pier.”
Güngör said most of piers around the Mediterranean Sea are not ready to host such a large ship.
Kuşadası hit international headlines last week when two women from Northern Ireland on holiday in the resort town were lured away to central İzmir by a local waiter and murdered. The suspect confessed to killing the two women because one of them refused to approve his request to marry her daughter.
Cultural heritage of the city
Kuşadası has been a center of art and culture since the earliest times and has been settled by many civilizations since being founded by the Leleges people in 3000 B.C. Later settlers included the Aeolians in the 11th century B.C. and Ionians in the 9th century. Originally seamen and traders, the Ionians built a number of settlements on this coast including Neopolis.
An outpost of Ephesus in ancient Ionia known as Pygela, the area between the Büyük Menderes and Gediz rivers, the original Neopolis is thought to have been founded on the nearby point of Yılancı Burnu. Later settlements were probably built on the hillside of Pilavtepe, in the district called Andızkulesi today.
Kuşadası was a minor port frequented by seagoing vessels trading along the Aegean coast. In antiquity it was overshadowed by Ephesus until Ephesus’ harbor silted up. From the 7th century B.C. onward the coast was ruled by the Lydians from their capital at Sardis. Then from 546 B.C. the Persians, and from 334 B.C. along with all of Anatolia, the coast was conquered by Alexander the Great. From then onward the coastal cities were the center of Hellenistic culture.