Izmir We Will Pursue a Treasure Lying in the Heart of the City: SMYRNA AGORA

Izmir is known as a city that stands out with its historical riches and cultural heritage. Izmir is like an open-air museum with all its riches. The ancient market place is an important historical monument that has hosted different civilizations for thousands of years and has survived to the present day.
In this documentary, we will go after a treasure lying in the heart of the city: the Smyrna Agora. We will take a unique look at the history of Izmir by tracing this magnificent marketplace from ancient times to the present day.
Smyrna Agora is also one of the most important elements of the Izmir Historical Port City, which was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List as of April 2020.
After a major earthquake in the city in 178 AD, the Agora was rebuilt with the support of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Most of the ruins that have survived to the present day belong to the Roman Period Agora. Smyrna Agora preserved its general character until the 7th century AD. Since the beginning of this century, it lost its importance as the city shrank, and its courtyard was used as a cemetery during the Middle and Late Eastern Roman and Ottoman periods. The ancient buildings surrounding the Agora courtyard area were inhabited from the Ottoman Period until the end of the 20th century. Smyrna has been an important port city in the Mediterranean since the Ancient Period. Agora and its surroundings witnessed an intense commercial life during the Ottoman Period, and also hosted neighborhoods where communities from different beliefs and cultures lived.
Agora covers a rectangular area in the center of the ancient city, in accordance with the grid city plan in this region. The courtyard area of the Agora was surrounded by porticos on four sides. Porticoes were semi-open structures used for protection and shelter of people in sunny, rainy, extremely cold and hot weather. In the Agora courtyard, there were stepped monuments and statues erected for important people, days and agreements, altars belonging to more than one god to whom offerings were made in religious ceremonies, Exedras, which are seats made of marble, and a temple and fixed altar of a god respected by the city.
It is known that there are generally two agoras in port cities. Although the location of the second agora in Smyrna is unknown, it must have been located close to the port and had prominent commercial functions. The current agora was the administrative, political, judicial and commercial center of ancient Smyrna. With these features, it is possible to define it as a state agora.
Existing ruins and soundings have shown that the agora was built as one of the first construction projects of the new city, in accordance with the founding legend of the city, at the end of the 4th century BC and the beginning of the 3rd century BC, just after Alexander the Great. Starting from the Hellenistic period, the structures in the agora were renovated over time, underwent changes and additions were made, took its current form at the end of the 2nd year AD and the beginning of the 3rd century AD, and preserved its general character until the 7th century AD at the earliest.
With the excavations in recent years, a City Council adjacent to the West Portico, a public building defined as the Mosaic Hall, and a Roman Bath structure just beyond these buildings were partially unearthed. The inscription on an architrave block probably indicates that there was a Temple of Nemesis* inside or adjacent to the agora.
Studies in the Smyrna Agora have identified new street or street traces that provide information about the street planning around the agora. These are Faustina Street, which starts from the Faustina Gate in the Agora West Portico and heads towards the port and Kemeraltı, Agora Kuzey Street, which passes in front of the Basilica, and Bouleuterion streets, which connect these two streets.
The relative prosperity and peace in the region and in Smyrna, which started to rise from the middle of the 3rd century BC and remained under the control of the Kingdom of Pergamon until the third quarter of the 2nd century BC, triggered construction activities in Smyrna, as in Pergamon and other cities under its control.
It can be seen that the courtyard plane used today was created with the construction of the basement floors of the basilica and portico in the north and west. In the basement floors of both buildings, windows opening to the courtyard plane were opened to provide lighting and ventilation.
When the Roman period entered, it was seen that the stoas surrounding the courtyard were insufficient to meet Roman requirements and were rearranged. As can be seen from the basement floor windows, the courtyard floor remained at the same level but was covered with marble plates.
It is accepted that the agora preserved these general lines until the beginning of the 7th century AD.
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