İzmir (Ottoman Turkish: إزمير İzmir, Greek: Σμύρνη Smýrnē, Armenian: Իզմիր, Italian: Smirne, Ladino: Izmir, without the Turkish dotted I) is the third most populous city of Turkey and the country's largest port after İstanbul. It is located in the Gulf of İzmir, by the Aegean Sea. It is the capital of İzmir Province. The city of İzmir is composed of 9 metropolitan districts. These are Balçova, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karşıyaka, Konak and Narlıdere. Each district, and often also the neighborhoods within, possesses distinct features and a particular temperament (for detailed infomation, see the articles on these districts). The 2000 population of this urban zone was 2,409,000 and the 2005 estimate is 3,500,000.

The name of a locality called Ti-smurna is mentioned in some of the Level II tablets from the Assyrian colony in Kültepe (first half of the 2nd millennium B.C.), with the prefix ti- identifying a proper name, although it is not established with certainty that this name refers to İzmir.[1] Some would see in the city's name a reference to the name of an Amazon called Smirna.

The oldest rendering in Greek of the city's name we know is the Aeolic Greek Μύῥρα Mýrrha, corresponding to the later Ionian and Attic Σμύρνη Smýrnē, both presumably descendants of a Proto-Greek form *Smúrnā. It would be linked to the name of the Myrrha commifera shrub, also known as the dindin tree, a plant that produces the aromatic resin called myrrh and is indigenous to the Middle East and northeastern Africa. The Romans took this name over as Smyrna which is the name used in English for the pre-Turkish periods. The name İzmir is the Turkish version of the same name.

The city is one of the oldest settlements of the Mediterranean basin. The recent discovery (in 2004) of Yeşilova Höyük and the neighboring höyük of Yassıtepe, situated in the plain of Bornova, reset the starting date of the city's past further back than was previously thought. The findings of the two seasons of excavations carried out in Yeşilova Höyük by a team of archaeologists from İzmir's Ege University under the direction of Associate Professor Zafer Derin indicate three levels, two of which are prehistoric. Level 2 bears traces of early to mid-Chalcolithic, and the Level 3 of Neolithic settlements. These two levels would have been inhabited by the native peoples of İzmir, very roughly, between 6500 to 4000 BCE. With the seashore drawing away in time, the site was later used as a cemetery (several graves containing artifacts dating, roughly, from 3000 BCE were found) [2].


Settlements of prehistory in and around İzmir, with those of the Bronze Age marked in blue, and the earlier ones in red.In connection with the silt brought by the five torrents that join the sea along the straight coastline of the gulf's end (clockwise, the Bornova, Laka, Manda, Arap and Meles brooks), the settlement that later formed the core of Old Smyrna was founded more to the north-west of the prehistoric settlements, on a hill in the present-day quarter of Bayraklı in the 3rd millennium BCE. The hill was possibly an island at the time or perhaps connected to the mainland by a very narrow isthmus. It was one of the most advanced cultures in Anatolia of its time and on a par with Troy. The presence of a vineyard of İzmir's Wine and Beer Factory on this hill called Tepekule prevented the urbanization of the site and facilitated the excavations that started in the 1960s by Ekrem Akurgal.

By 1500 BCE the region fell under the influence of the Central Anatolian Hittite Empire. The Hittites possessed a written language and mentioned several localities in the area in their records.

However, in the 1200s BCE, invasions from the Balkans destroyed Troy VII and Hattusas, the capital of the Central Anatolian Hittite Empire. Central and Western Anatolia fell back into a Dark Age that lasted until the emergence of the Phrygian civilization in the 8th century BCE.

During the Iron Age the houses were small, one-room buildings. The oldest house that has been unearthed is dated at 925 to 900 BCE. The walls of this well-preserved one-roomed house (2.45 x 4 m) were made of sun-dried bricks and the roof of the house was made of reeds. Around that time, people started to protect the city with thick ramparts made of sun-dried bricks. From then on Smyrna achieved an identity of city-state. About 1000 lived inside the city walls, with others living in near-by villages, where fields, olive trees, vineyards, and the workshops of potters and stonecutters were located. People generally made their living on agriculture and fishing.

Homer

Homer, referred to as Melesigenes which means "Child of Meles Brook" is said to have been born in Smyrna. Meles Brook is located within the city of İzmir, still carrying the same name. Aristotle recounts: "Kriteis... gives birth to Homer near Meles Brook and dies after. Maion brings this child up and names him as Melesigenes ("Child of Meles") to emphasize the place where he was born." Six other cities claimed that Homer was their countryman. These cities are Salamis, Argos, Athens, Rhodes, Colophon and Chios, but the main belief is that Homer was born in Ionia. Combined with written evidence, it is generally admitted that Smyrna and Chios put forth the strongest arguments in claiming Homer.