Tramway from Konak (Pl. A, 6) along the quay to Punta Station (Gare de la Pointe; Pl. E, 2), 7 metalliks; from Konak to Göz Tepeh (p. [532]), 4 metalliks.
Local Steamers to Kordelio, Göz Tepeh, etc.
Steamboat Agents (offices all on the quay). North German Lloyd, Van der Zee (also for German Levant Line); Austrian Lloyd, Pussich; Khedivial Mail, Cohen; Messageries Maritimes, D. G. Alevra; Società Nazionale, Fratelli Missir; German Levant Line, Milberg; Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co., Bégléry.
Banks. Banque Ottomane (Pl. B, 4); Crédit Lyonnais, Rue Franque (p. [532]); Banque de Salonique and Banque d’Athènes.—Money Changers in front of the Hôt. Huck and the Hœnischer Passage (Pl. B, 3, 4); a charge of 2–5 metalliks is made, according to amount. Perforated coins should be rejected.
Consulates. British: consul-general, H. D. Barnham; vice-consul, C. E. Heathcote Smith.—United States (Pl. 3; C, 3): consul-general, E. L. Harris; vice-consul, E. A. Magnifico.
English Church (Pl. E, 2), near Gare de la Pointe.
Smyrna, Turk. Izmir, the seat of the vali or governor of the Turkish province of Aidin, lies in 38° 26′ N. lat. and 27° 9′ E. long., in a bay between Sanjak Kalesí (p. [530]) and the Punta (La Pointe; Pl. D, E, 1). As all the older harbours on the W. coast of Asia Minor have been choked by alluvial deposits, Smyrna has developed into the chief seaport of Anatolia and the largest city in Turkish Asia after Damascus. Population, excl. suburbs, about 200,000, incl. over 100,000 Greeks, 60,000 Turks, 20,000 Jews (p. [542]), 12,000 Armenians, and 15,000 Europeans and Levantines. The chief languages are Greek, French, and Italian.
Smyrna was founded in the 11th cent. B.C. on the N. side of the bay of Burnabad (p. [533]), about 2 M. to the N. of the present city. The Ionians of Colophon (p. [491]) captured it for the sake of its trade in the 7th cent. and added it to their league of twelve cities. About 575 B.C. it was taken by the Lydian king Alyattes, who destroyed it and settled its inhabitants in villages. A new Smyrna, as planned by Alexander the Great, was founded later on the Pagos (p. [532]) by the diadochi Antigonos and Lysimachos, and soon developed into one of the finest towns in Asia Minor. After the havoc wrought by terrible earthquakes in 178 and 180 A.D. the emperor Marcus Aurelius caused it to be rebuilt. For a time it was wrested from the Byzantine emperors by Turkish pirates (1084) and the Seljuks (p. [542]). During the Latin domination in Constantinople (p. [542]) Smyrna remained under the sceptre of the Greek emperor at Nikæa. In 1344 the Genoese and the Knights of St. John took the city under their protection, but in 1402 they were unable to save it from the ravages committed by Timur (p. [485]), nor could they in 1424 prevent its capture by the Osmans. This ‘eye of Asia Minor’, as the Turks have called Smyrna, has risen to wonderful prosperity of late years.
The quays were built in 1868–80 and at the same time the Harbour, of 50 acres only, was protected by a breakwater 1400 yds. long and 19 yds. in breadth. The entrance is between the N.E. end of this breakwater and the N. pier (Pl. B, 3, 4) near the passport-office, passengers’ custom-house, and telegraph office. The local steamers (p. [531]) are berthed between the N. and the S. mole (Pl. A, 4, 5; chief custom-house).
The great business thoroughfare is the Quay Street (Greek Prokymaea, Ital. Marina), over 2 M. long, skirting the Frank quarter (see below). In the S. part of this street, among the motley throng of sailors, dock-labourers, and traders of every nation, are often seen picturesque trains of camels, headed in some cases by a donkey. The N. part of the quay, with its theatres, cafés, and many handsome dwelling-houses, is of an entirely different character.