Izmir

Izmir (formerly known as Smyrna) is the second-largest port (after Istanbul) and the third most populous city of Turkey is located on the Aegean Sea near the Gulf of Izmir.

The city was settled before 3000 BC and was an important city of Ionians. It was an important center for traders and merchants throughout the Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods. The city earned its fame as one of the most important port-cities of the world during the 17th-19th centuries, while merchants from a variety of origins (especially French, Italian, Dutch, Armenian, Jewish, and Greek) transformed the city into a cosmopolitan portal of trade. During this period, the city was famous for its own brand of music (Smyrneika) as well as s wide range of products it exported to Europe (Smyrna/Sultana grapes, carpets, etc.) Izmir was partially destroyed in the hostilities after World War I after the Greeks had attacked Turkey from a base at Smyrna which they occupied, and was rebuilt after 1922. The large Greek population was expelled or killed. Muslim subjects were expelled from Greece during the same period. Modern Izmir still has remnants of the minorities (such as the Levantines and Armenians) of its cosmopolitan past.