Ilıca

Ilıca

Understand Çeşme is a port at the tip of a long peninsula. The name means spring or fountain, likely referring to the geothermal hot springs on the coast a couple of km out of town. In the Middle Ages it was a more important port than Izmir, trading with the Genoese who held nearby islands such as Chios. It surrendered without a fight to the Ottomans in 1566, but trade thereafter shifted to Izmir. In the 18th century Russia under Catherine the Great expanded south and came into conflict with the Ottomans, with a big sea battle fought just off Çeşme. Russia won, and retained a navy in the Aegean for some years thereafter, but the lasting territorial repercussions were around the Black Sea. The town continued in a small way with trade and agriculture, until the big growth from tourism in the 1970s. It's within a short transfer time of Izmir airport but international tourists mostly bypass Çeşme for the fleshpots of Marmaris and Bodrum further south. Much tourism is therefore domestic.

Source: Wikivoyage · CC BY-SA 4.0.