The South Shore of the Gulf, from Narlıdere to Barbaros

Start the day at Narlıdere Kaymakamlık, the westernmost station of the M1 metro line. The line reached this station in March 2024 and there are four stations within the district; so Narlıdere is now a shore you reach from Konak without changing. Walking down from the station to Sahilevleri you see the shape of the district descending from the slope towards the gulf; the district centre sits quite high above the sea, while the shore strip is a flat band. When you reach the shore you are on the pedestrian path laid out in two stages under the İzmirdeniz coastal design project, which according to the sources exceeds two and a half kilometres.

Start the walk at its eastern end and move west, so the morning sun stays behind you. Benches of natural stone and precast concrete line the path; if you are in no hurry, sit on one and watch the Karşıyaka and Çiğli line on the opposite shore of the gulf. Four fishing piers were built in the project for those who want a closer look at the sea; in the morning you see people casting lines mostly from these piers. A wooden looking sunset deck similar to the one in Bostanlı is also on this shore, and because it is empty in the morning it makes a good spot for photographs.

Notice the choice of plants, because the landscaping was built with species resistant to salty sea air and wind. Alongside evergreen trees such as juniper, tamarisk, oleaster and bay laurel, colourful shrubs such as lavender, bird of paradise, oleander and gaura were used. Baku Park lies within this shore strip, and the new generation play areas for families with children are here. Works from the İzmir Sculpture Workshop were also placed on the shore; looking for them as you walk adds a small goal to the stroll.

For those who want to come by bicycle there is a one kilometre cycle path and a BİSİM station on the shore; the district has four BİSİM stations in all. For a short ride you can hire a bicycle, go to the end of the path and come back. At Limanreis, in the west of the district, after sea water analyses came out clean, the public beach with a blue flag closest to the city centre was planned; if you are thinking of swimming, check the current state of the beach in advance.

As you walk, think about the story of the district too. According to the sources the Romans gave this area the name Akhilleion, meaning water passage in the Luwian language, and the narrowest point of the gulf was at the cape opposite this shore. In the Ottoman period the Sancakburnu Castle, built in 1666 by order of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, held this narrows; today the castle lies within the boundaries of Balçova, inside a military zone. The name of the district is said to come from the pomegranate trees around the Ali Onbaşı stream, and Narlıdere is still known for its citrus gardens and flower growing. According to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the population of the district was only around two thousand six hundred in the 1950s. Summer houses built on the coast and seasonal workers who came for citrus production made that population grow quickly in the decades that followed.

Shade is hard to find on the shore for long, so make use of the cool of the morning and take water with you. At the end of an hour's walk, take one of the ESHOT buses heading west along the coast road and cross to Güzelbahçe; if you prefer to continue by boat, remember that İZDENİZ sails to the Güzelbahçe pier.

Source: TGRT Haber, Narlıdere Sahilevleri kıyı projesi; Wikipedia, Narlıdere.

In Güzelbahçe, start the stop at the pier in the Yalı neighbourhood; if you came by ferry you are already there. Yalı is the most populous neighbourhood of the district, and with its fishing harbour, fish market and renewed coast road this part of the shore is the centre of Güzelbahçe's daily life. Fishing and farming lie at the base of the district economy, so watching the boats come into the harbour in the morning or towards noon is the most authentic moment of this stop. There is a fish market around the harbour; it is a good place to look at the stalls and learn what the gulf gives in which season.

Then walk along the coast road that runs from the harbour towards the night market. This stretch of about one kilometre was renewed in first and second stage works; with palm trees, street furniture, a park and beach landscaping it is used like the neighbourhood's own promenade. Along the road there are benches right at the water's edge; sit on one and look west across the gulf towards Urla. There are also neighbourhood parks along the road, which you can use as resting places if you come with children.

In the summer months a night market is set up every evening in the Yalı neighbourhood; if you do the route in reverse in summer, leaving this stop for the evening is a good idea. Further west along the shore, in the Siteler neighbourhood, there is a public beach run by the district municipality, and you can also swim along the Maltepe shore. There are eight beaches along the district's coast, one of them with a blue flag; check their state for the season with the district municipality. Güzelbahçe's shore strip runs from the Limanreis part of Narlıdere in the east to the Çamlıçay part of Urla in the west, so on this walk you see only one part of the district's coast.

The story of the district's name is also the subject of this stop. The oldest name of Güzelbahçe is Kilizman, and this name comes from the ancient city of Klazomenai, whose remains lie at Urla İskele. In 1936 it became a sub district centre attached to Urla under the name Kızılbahçe, in 1957 it took its present name and in 1993 it became a separate district. For a while it was merged with Narlıdere into a single district called Narlıbahçe; the link between the first stop and this one is therefore not only geographic.

For photographs, frames taken from the pier looking back at the shore give the low buildings of the neighbourhood and the slopes behind together. At midday the light is harsh; you catch the colour of the sea best in the morning or late afternoon. There are many places to sit around the pier and on the coast road, so it makes sense to take your lunch break here. In winter the wind blowing off the gulf is felt here too, and spring and summer are better for a shore walk.

At the end of the stop you can use the ESHOT buses heading west to reach Urla İskele; if you are driving, the coast road takes you to Urla. Remember that in the summer season İZDENİZ ferries also sail to Urla, and check the current sailing information with İZDENİZ.

Source: Wikipedia, Güzelbahçe; Yeni Bakış, Güzelbahçe'de keşfedilmeyi bekleyen yerler; Karar, Güzelbahçe sahil yolu.

Urla İskele is the shore of the İskele neighbourhood north of Urla centre, and it is the stop on this route with the heaviest load of history. When you reach the pier, first look east of the harbour at the low hill that the road crosses right over; this is the Limantepe mound. The mound is regarded as one of the oldest known harbours of the Aegean Sea, and traces of settlement run from the Chalcolithic Age to the end of the Bronze Age. The site was made known to the scholarly world by Ekrem Akurgal in 1950 and has been excavated under the direction of Hayat Erkanal since 1992. The work on land was joined by underwater research carried out by the University of Haifa, so part of this harbour now lies beneath the sea.

The excavation area works by its own arrangements, so do not try to go in; read the mound from the road and the shore. The sources note that the modern road leading to the Urla pier cuts the hill from east to west and that the summer houses on the shore have damaged the mound. With this in mind, it is not hard to imagine that beneath a hill that looks like an ordinary roadside lie walls and houses thousands of years old. The obsidian from the island of Melos found in the Chalcolithic layers shows that even in very early periods this was a harbour linked to the Aegean islands.

Then head north to the road that reaches out to Karantina Island. The island lies directly opposite the İskele neighbourhood and carries part of the remains of the ancient city of Klazomenai; the people of Klazomenai had moved from the mainland to this island out of fear of the Persians. According to the sources the island was first joined to the land in the time of Alexander the Great, the ancient causeway decayed over time and the present infill was made in 1955. The island takes its name from the quarantine facilities the French set up in 1865; the facilities were used to fight epidemic diseases until the end of the First World War. Karantina Island is counted as one of the three quarantine islands in the world still standing.

The island's later life is interesting too. The facilities, which became the Sea and Sun Institute in the 1950s and a hospital for bone and joint diseases in the 1960s, were turned into the Urla State Hospital in 1986, and the hospital moved to its new building off the island in 2014. Today the island is a protected site and is in practice used by the Ministry of Health; ask in advance whether you can go onto it, and at this stop it is enough to watch the island from the road and the shore. As you walk along the road you see two different faces of the gulf to your right and left.

The mainland remains of Klazomenai are also close by, and the city is known for its olive oil workshop dated to the sixth century before Christ; that site deserves a separate visit. Today the area around the pier, with its fishing harbour and places to eat by the sea, is where İzmir people escape to in the evening. If you will not wait here for sunset, take a short walk on the pier in the afternoon and watch the harbour. The last stop of the route, Barbaros, lies inland south west of Urla centre; you need a vehicle to get there, and the road takes you from the shore up slopes covered in olive groves and vineyards.

Source: Wikipedia, Limantepe; Wikipedia, Karantina Adası; Wikipedia, Klazomenai.

When you reach Barbaros, leave your vehicle at the entrance of the village and walk into the streets; this stop is toured on foot, not by car. Barbaros held village status until 2014 and today is a neighbourhood of Urla; according to its residents it is a settlement around seven hundred years old. Its old name is Sıradam; in the village list of 1928, however, it appears under the name Barbaros as a village attached to the Barbaros sub district of Çeşme. In the 1940 census its population was 507, and in 1955 it was counted among the villages of the sub district attached to Urla.

Start in the village square; this square with its monument is the village meeting place, and the hills behind it open onto the village fields. Then spread out into the streets and look for the oyuk. Oyuk is the local word for the scarecrow set up in vegetable gardens, and since 2016 colourful scarecrows have been displayed on every corner of the village. In the first year the villagers made around four hundred oyuk in workshops; at that time the population of the village was four hundred and sixteen, so there was one scarecrow for every villager. Because the scarecrows wear out in the heat and cold they are renewed every year, so you meet different faces each time you come.

The scarecrows have a purpose: to draw attention to farming. The Oyuk Festival was started through collective village work to revive farming in the village, promote it, bring income to the villagers and reverse migration. Six thousand people came to the first festival, and the festival is held every year at the end of summer. Tourism in the village goes back further, too; from the second half of the 1970s until 1998, village women sold their handicrafts at the roadside to visitors who came to folk dance shows held one day a week.

On 17 October 2025 Barbaros entered the best tourism villages list of the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Since then the number of visitors from Türkiye and abroad has risen, so the streets get crowded at weekends and on festival days. The busiest seasons in the village are spring and autumn; if you want a quiet visit, choose a weekday.

Today there are handicraft workshops in the village, and most of the businesses are run by women. Events such as an open air cinema, a women's choir and a rhythm workshop are also organised through collective work; because the calendar varies, look at the current announcements before you go. Joining one of the workshops is the best way to see up close how the scarecrows are made or to see the village handicrafts. There are also places serving local food in the village, and you can close the day by having lunch or dinner here.

When taking photographs you can freely shoot the oyuk in front of the houses, but do not enter courtyards and gardens without permission; this is a living neighbourhood. The light softens in the afternoon, and you catch the colourful scarecrows best at these hours. Because the village streets are narrow, do not drive your car in, and leave by the village entrance on the way back. On the way back to İzmir you can pass through Urla centre and join the İzmir-Çeşme Motorway, or choose the coast road and catch the sunset over the gulf.

Source: DHA, Barbaros en iyi turizm köyleri; Habertürk, Barbaros'un ziyaretçileri sanatla ağırlanıyor; Wikipedia, Barbaros, Urla.