Antiquity
The area has been a centre of art and culture since the earliest times and has been settled by many civilizations since being founded by the Leleges people in 3000 BC. Later settlers include the Aeolians in the 11th century BC 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, the area between the Buyuk Menderes and Gediz rivers, the original Neopolis is thought to have been founded on the nearby point of Yilanci Burnu. Later settlements were probably built on the hillside of Pilavtepe, in the district called Andizkulesi today. Kusadasi was a minor port frequented by vessels trading along the Aegean coast. In antiquity it was overshadowed by Ephesus until Ephesus harbor silted up. From the 7th century BC onwards the coast was ruled by Lydians from their capital at Sardis, then from 546 BC the Persians, and from 334 BC along with all of Anatolia the coast was conquered by Alexander the Great. From then onwards the coastal cities were the centre of the mixed Greek and Anatolian culture called Hellenistic.
Rome and Christianity
The Roman Empire took possession of the coast in the 2nd century BC and in the early years of Christianity, Mary (mother of Jesus) and St John the Evangelist both came to live in the area, which in the Christian era became known as "Ania", although the spirituality was clearly not ingrained as during the Middle Ages the port was a haven for pirates.
Later as Byzantine, Venetian and Genoese traders began to work the coast the port was founded (as Scala Nuova "new port"), a garrison was placed on the island, and the town centre moved from the hillside to the coast.
The Turkish era
From 1086 the area came under Turkish control and the Aegean ports became the final destination of caravan routes to the Orient. However this arrangement was overthrown by the Crusades and the coast again came under Byzantine control until 1280 when first the Mentese and then the Aydinoglu Anatolian Turkish Beyliks took control. Kusadas? was brought into the Ottoman Empire by Mehmet I in 1413. The Ottomans built the city walls and the caravanserai that still stand today.
In 1834 the castle and garrison on the island was rebuilt and expanded, becoming the focus of the town, to the extent that people began to refer to the whole town as Kusadasi (Bird Island). However in the 19th century, trade declined in favor of Izmir with the opening of the Izmir-Aydin railway, as Kusadasi had no rail connection.
During the Turkish War of Independence Kusadasi was occupied from 1919-1922 first by Italian, then by Greek troops. It was eventually captured on September 7th 1922.
Under the Turkish Republic the Greek population was exchanged for Turkish people as part of the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1922. It was a district in Izmir Province until 1954 and become the district of Aydin Province. Until the first holiday apartments were built here in the 1970s Kusadasi was a fruit-growing rural district, it then grew into a small resort town with holiday flats. These were built as housing co-operatives, membership sold to families in Ankara, Izmir, Denizli and other Turkish cities. From the mid 1980s Kusadasi grew again into the centre of mass tourism that we have today.
In 2005, the town was the location of a bomb attack causing five casualties,
Car hire services in Izmir, Turkey
Car hire Kusadasi
Airport transfer services
Izmir Airport transfers to Kusadasi
For more information about Kusadasi we recommend the following sources:
Wikipedia, Kusadasi
DMOZ, Links over Kusadasi
