Aydin, Turkey Tourism

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, on the Izmir-Denizli-Afyon branch of the Anatolian railroad. Located west of the Tabakhane are what were the old Turkish and Jewish quarters, to the east the Armenian and Greek. Driving in from the south however, past all the recent building, first impressions are of a newish town.

The Büyük Menderes plain, with Aydin at its center, is a region of intensive cultivation where, in addition to the main crop cotton, Turkey's best grapes (raisins) and best figs are also grown. Emery, occuring locally in the crystalline rock to the west of Aydin, makes this the country's principal source of the mineral. Straddling a tectonic fault-line (Menderes trench), the town is subject to frequent earthquakes. As recently as 1895 a quake near Aydin threw up a ridge a meter high.

History

Though built on a site immediately below that of ancient Tralles, the town is actually of Turkish origin. It was the seat of the emirs of Aydin, the first of whom, Mehmet Aydinoglu, established the beylik (principality) of Aydin in 1307 and founded the Aydin Ogullari dynasty. The town was named Aydin Güzelhisar by Mehmet's father. When in 1424 the area came under Ottoman control, Aydin continued as an important regional center. From the 18th century until 1822, with the Ottoman Empire already in decline, its rulers were the Karaosmanoglu derebeys.

The name Güzel Hisar, meaning "handsome fortress", refers in fact to the ruined Tralles. As far as the old beylik capital is concerned, several earthquakes and a devasting fire at the time of the Greek retreat in 1922, have left virtually no historic buildings standing. Only the mosques are of any real interest today.