This pretty old Orthodox village, 12 km away from Ephesus and 30 km from Kusadasi, was once Cirkince (”ugly”). Indeed its habitants gave this name on purpose as they did not want to be bothered by foreigners nor to share the beauty of their village.Still after years, visitors understood that the village was not ugly at all and called it Sirince (”pretty”). As the village is located on the top of a mountain, anyone will enjoy the impressive wine yards’ and peach trees’ views on his way.
Located 23km south-west of Kusadasi, Guzelcamli offers a peaceful atmosphere by the seaside. Since its founding in 700BC, the town has been continually inhabited by many civilizations. Guzelcamli was an important convention place of the Ionian States, named as Panionian during the Ionian era. The town has also kept its significance after the Ionians, and was ruled by Seljukians and Ottomans, until today.Guzelcamli, with nice beaches for swimming, is also a superb spot for all water sports. Numerous beaches and bays allow the visitors to make activities or swim in the warm waters during the day.
Davutlar, a small quite town, populated 6000 in the winter and rising up to 35000 in the summer, is situated 15km south of Kusadasi, on the way to National Park. The center of the town is a bit farther from the sea, but fine powdery sand of the beaches situated around, provide a good opportunity for relaxing. The sparkling clear waters of the beaches also attract many visitors of Davutlar.Davutlar is covered in the contrasting greens of pines and olive trees around Mount Samsun that provides a good accommodation for rarely found trees aged 300 or 350 years, and historical places , as well.
The ideal place to escape from town fuss and noise is a well-merited rest and beach afternoon in the national park (since 1960’s) of Kalamaki in the “Dilek Peninsula”. Located approx. 30 km South of Kusadasi, it is only 1-2 km far from the Greek island Samos.The Kalamaki beaches count several bays of which the most important ones are Icmeler (1st bay and only sandy one), Kavakli and Karapinar. Winters are mostly rainy and Summers dry. This explains that water sources are the main place where fauna gathers for drinking.
Pigeon Island, with its gleaming image, really deserves to be symbol of Kusadasi. The eye-catching view of the island, uniting with the panoramic colors of sunset attract every visitors. As the island was much-frequented place of birds during the seasonal migrations, it was named as Bird Island.In the times of Ottomans, the name of the island was given to the town and the town was started to be called as “Kusadasi” (Bird Island). Since then, the name of the island was changed into “Pigeon Island”.
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Views from Kusadasi in the year 1986.
This seaside resort town has grown up immensely in the last 30 years, and is especially popular with package holiday-makers from Europe. From a population of 6000 in the 1970s, it is now closer to 50,000, although a high proportion of this are part of the tourist industry and here only for the summer.
