The third largest city in Turkey and a 2 night stop on the drive down the coast from Cannakale to Kusadasi. A pleasant bay-side waterfront but the surrounding hills and coast are covered with housing and apartment complexes squeezed together without a lot of breathing space. Urban sprawl seems to be its main characteristic, it has a surprising sister-city relationship with Tel Aviv, its population has had a very high proportion of foreigners where Turks have been a minority and it is a centre of Turkish secular sentiment.
2 days spent in the pool at the hotel and night time strolls along the waterfront away from the crowds were nice interludes on the long drive.
An ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city of more than 1/4 million. The main attraction is its Temple of Artimis (550BC), one of the 7 Wonders Of The Ancient World, of which 1 column is standing. Rather, the Library Of Celsus and the huge amphitheatre are the 'wow' moments.
The Library Of Celsus, completed by the Romans in 135AD, was built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for Celsus (Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus who you'll recall from high school histroy lessons).
Outside the main site, scattered amongst the grass and bushes in farmers fields along the narrow entry roads were what were obviously old stone building blocks and remnants of walls. There is so much ancient history spread across the Meditteranian that such things are unremarkable. Blows the minds of those of us from the New World where something 200 years old is worthy of note. I guess if we don't protect the 200 y.o. artefacts they won't get to be 2,000 y.o. artefacts.
The Grand Fortress on a hill behind the nearby town of Selcuk had no visitor access and bugger all information on the internet. Just ABC.