Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey with a population of 2 million. It was called Smyrna until 1923. Many people believe that Homer was born in Old Smyrna, around 850 BC. Alexander the Great endowed the city with a citadel on top of the highest hill - the Velvet Fortress.

Under the rule of Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, etc., while the Mongol leader Tamerlane plundered the city and killed its inhabitants in 1402, thirteen years later Sultan Mehmed I Celebi included the city within the Ottoman Empire. In the eighteenth - nineteenth century the city was a thriving port of international importance. In 1918, Smyrna was conquered by the Greeks. In 1922, after the victory of the Turkish troops under the command of Ataturk, the city was burned. Restored again, it received the Turkish name Izmir.

The Archaeological Museum contains statues of Demeter and Poseidon from the second century, found during archeological excavations at the Agora - a Roman city market. Here is the impressive collection of tombs and friezes and the colossal statue of the Roman emperor Domitian (81-96).

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