Karaburun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Karaburun | |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Country |  Turkey |
| Region | Aegean |
| Province | İzmir |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Hamza Serdar Yasa (CHP) |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| - Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Postal code | 35x xx |
| Area code(s) | 0232 |
| Licence plate | 35 |
| Website: http://www.karaburun.bel.tr/ | |
Karaburun is a town and a district in Turkey's İzmir Province. The district area roughly corresponds to the peninsula of the same name (Karaburun Peninsula) which spears north of the internationally famous tourism resorts of the neighboring Çeşme and its dependencies. Karaburun town is situated close to the northern tip of the peninsula and checks the entry of the Gulf of İzmir with the town of Foça, another important tourism resort, across the waters. The district's administrative zone is bordered by the districts of Çeşme and Urla in its south and faces the Greek island of Chios.
Karaburun region is comparatively much less visited than Çeşme although it provides an anticlimax to its southern neighbor and the associated attractions especially for those who want to escape the trails of mass tourism. The coasts of the peninsula have beautiful bays and pebble or sand beaches as yet often undiscovered by outsiders, although there is one German vacation village slightly to the north of the district center. Its flora and fauna also varies from the Anatolian mainland.
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[edit] History
The oldest name known for the region was Mimas (Greek:Μίμας), in reference to the son of Gaia who was one of the Giants slain by Hephaistos during the war between Gods and Giants in Greek mythology. Homer mentions the "windy Mimas" mountain (present-day Bozdağ) in his Odyssey. The Mimas mountain is also associated with Iris, Leto and Narcissus. In Ionian through to Byzantine times, the region also carried the names Stelar or Stylarius, Caleberno by the Genoese and Ahırlı during the Ottoman era. There are different possibilities for the name Karaburun. One that is mentioned in the municipality web site is that it would be a modified form of Caleberno. Another possibility may have to do with the very translation of the Turkish name, which means "black cape", a fitting description especially for sailors who approach Karaburun Peninsula from open sea.
The region is rich in history although its only sizeable urban center from ancient Greek, Byzantine through to Ottoman times was in Erythrai. Today the village of Ildırı stands in the ancient town's location and the village depends Çeşme. Traces of smaller settlements can also be traced back to the Bronze Age.
Karaburun is the most recently constituted district of İzmir, although the town of Karaburun was made into a municipality already in 1902.
[edit] Features
The distance between Karaburun and İzmir center by way of land is 100 km (approximately 60 miles) and there are regular bus services and a three-lane modern highway until the toll near Çeşme. The rest of the road is narrow and curvy in some places and it may take up to two hours to reach Karaburun from İzmir. The country road is traced northwards along the eastern coast of the peninsula to reach Mordoğan first, which is, aside from Karaburun, the district's only other depending township with own municipality. After Karaburun, the same road continues towards the tip of the peninsula from where it heads west to reach the village of Küçükbahçe.
| Villages | Distance to Karaburun (km) | Population |
| Ambarseki | 4 | 252 |
| Bozköy | 7 | 176 |
| Eğlenhoca | 12 | 698 |
| Hasseki | 12 | 91 |
| İnecik | 13 | 560 |
| Küçükbahçe | 33 | 773 |
| Kösedere | 11 | 619 |
| Parlak | 22 | 184 |
| Saip | 3 | 220 |
| Salman | 24 | 162 |
| Sarpıncık | 15 | 178 |
| Tepeboz | 8 | 357 |
| Yayla | 13 | 127 |
Nearer to Karaburun is the abandoned village of Sazak whose inhabitants were subject to the 1923 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the frame of the Treaty of Lausanne. Sazak today is a ghost town rarely visited by tourists from Karaburun.
The whole district is very quiet during winter when the population of Karaburun center falls back to the usual 2500, with the owners of summer houses gone. Nevertheless, its spectacular gorges and heights makes the peninsula a favorite destination among trekkers in all seasons.
There is talk since years on starting ferry services in partance of İzmir to these two centers of the peninsula, which would be quite practical by allowing visitors to avoid the difficult end-portion of the land route, but the project meets the opposition of the dolmuş lobby.
Karaburun is also the district off the western coasts of which a Hellenic Coast Guard ship from Chios had discharged illegal immigrants to the sea on 26 September 2006, literally throwing them overboard in an event that made international headlines, causing six immigrants to drown while three others had disappeared (Tunisians and Palestinians) and 31 could be saved by Turkish gendarmes and fishermen. [1].
[edit] Sources
- Rosie Ayliffe and co. (2003). The rough guide to Turkey ISBN 1843530716 (in English). Rough Guides.
- Şevket Işık (2002). Karaburun Yarımadasının tarihsel coğrafyası (Historio-geography of Karaburun Peninsula) ISBN 9754835438 (in Turkish). Ege University.
[edit] References
- ^ Delete the Border quoting Khaleej Times; ADN Kronos Survivors of the immigrant boat tragedy accuse Greeks (in English) - [1] [2] [3] The newspaper Hürriyet (in Turkish).
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Townships of Karaburun District, İzmir, Turkey |  |
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Karaburun | Mordoğan |
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