FOÇA (PHOKAİA)

 

WHERE DOES THE NAME FOÇA COME FROM?

Foça, also known as Phokaia, takes its name from the seals living on the islands surrounding the city.

ANCIENT PERIOD

Foça (Phokaia); It was one of the most important of the Ionian settlements. The foundations of today's western civilization, BC. It was cast in Ionia in the 6th century. The Ionian of the period was a pioneer in philosophy, architecture and sculpture. The sculptor, Telephanes, who decorated the Persian palaces with his works; famous architect Theodoros (4th century BC); BC Dionysus, the commander who led the "Lade Sea War" in 494, was from Phocaea.

Phokaia, BC. It was founded in the 11th century by the Aeolians. Ionian settlement BC. It started in the 9th century. The Phokaians were master sailors; They had boats with 50 oars & 500 passengers. With their superior intelligence in engineering and their success in maritime, they opened up to the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Seas and established many colonies. The Phokaians' mastery at sea allowed them to be successful in commerce as well. Phokaia was one of the first cities in Ionia to issue a natural gold-silver combination electron coin.

Phokaia whetted the appetite of many civilizations with these achievements and BC. It was the first Ionian city destroyed by the Persians in 546. The glorious age of the city came to an end with the Persian invasion, and the majority of the people left the city. BC Alexander the Great set foot in Anatolia in 334 and abolished Persian sovereignty; It was the beginning of a new era. Phokaia, after the death of Alexander, respectively; It came under the rule of the Seleucids, the Kingdom of Pergamon and the Romans.

PERIOD OF TURKISH DOMINATION

Two mosques from the Ottoman Period, Foça Fatih Mosque and Foça Kayalar Mosque; Relatively well-preserved inscriptions and plastic ornaments and tombstones from the same period are other important historical artifacts in Phokaia. The Ottoman Cemetery, located in the south of Foça, can give an idea about the history and density of the Turkish settlement in Foça.

HISTORICAL PLACES IN FOÇA REGION

Athena Temple:

It was built in the name of Athena, the mother goddess of the city of Phokaia, one of the 12 Ionian cities of Western Anatolia. It is one of the earliest examples of the type of temple at the Ionian level, the construction of which began in 590-580. Columns made of tuff stone carry the cradle roof system. The excavation of the temple of Athena started in the 1998-1999 excavation season and is still continuing. The temple is in the center of Phokaia and dominates the city. Its main entrance faces east. In front of the east face was an altar where the offerings to Athena were left. The temple was surrounded by a beautiful podium wall.

The current excavations are working to unearth this podium wall. Many temple architectural fragments were also found on the podium wall. In addition, the Athena Sanctuary was used as a living space in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many architectural and ceramic finds from this period were also found.

Kybele Open Air Temple:

BC. There are statues and reliefs of the goddess Cybele in five niches of various sizes in the building, which is dated to 580 BC. Small niches for the votive pool carved into the rock and sailor's lanterns; shows that those who came from the sea worshiped here. The fortification walls on the rock on which the sanctuary rests show four different periods of wall construction. The archaic walls were built without mortar. While lime mortar was used on the walls of the Roman period; Khorasan Mortar consisting of lime mortar, sand, brick fragments and tile dust was used in the Genoese and Ottoman period walls.

Theatre:

BC. The theater, dated to 340-330 BC, was found in the last period of excavations. It is the oldest theater of Anatolia. 

Archaic Wall & Herodotus Wall:

During the recent excavations, 5 km. It turned out that it had long walls. In the excavations made on the top of the Maltepe Tumulus, BC. The fortification walls dated to 590-580 BC were found. Because Herodotus frequently mentions these walls, it is called the Wall of Herodotus. Persian arrow and spearheads, broken amphorae and old catapult cannonballs unearthed during the excavations date back to BC. It showed that there was a great war in 546 BC. The war between the army of the Persian Commander Harpagos and the Phokaians resulted in the victory of Harpagos.

Outer Fortress:

Also known as the Outer Fortress or the Genoese Fortress on Kale Burnu, southwest of Foça, the fortress was built by the Ottomans in 1678 as a straitjacket at a strategic point to protect the region. Located on a promontory, the castle is separated from the mainland by a large ditch in the east for defensive purposes. During the underwater archeology researches, stone cannonballs were found at the bottom of the sea, off the coast of the castle. It is thought that these cannonballs were catapulted from the castle to the enemy ships. Inside are the remains of a Turkish bath.  

Stone House:   

BC. It is a tomb monument dating back to the 4th century, built in the Lydia/Lykia tradition, under Persian influence.

Mosaics: 

During the recent excavations, settlement levels belonging to Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods were unearthed. Discovered during the excavations in 1993, İ.S. One of the floor mosaics of the Roman period villa dated to the 5th-4th century is intact. The other was found partially damaged. The intact part was restored and put in the Izmir Archeology Museum.

Devil's Bath:

Located at the foot of Can Dede Hill, the rock-cut tomb-type structure is known as the Devil's Bath. It is a family tomb made by carving the rocks in ancient times. The tomb consisted of a long road and two burial chambers. The pottery found during the excavations, the tomb's BC. It has been revealed that it belongs to the 4th century.

Walls and the Beşkapılar:

This ancient castle was given to the Genoese Manuel Zacharna by Michel Paleok in 1275 and its walls were repaired by the Genoese over time. After the annexation of Phokaia to the Ottoman lands in 1455, the walls were repaired and equipped with towers, nine of which are now distinguishable. Beşkapılar is the boathouse section of the Ottoman period castle. According to the inscription here, it was repaired in 1538-1539 during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. Beşkapılar was restored in 1983 and 1994. The best preserved parts of the walls surrounding the city are the restorations on the peninsula from the Byzantine, Genoese and Ottoman periods. Scientific excavations are carried out in Beşkapılar. The boathouse of the castle is used as an open air theater today.

Windmills:

Top Mountain is the mountain on the left of the slope you descended on while coming to Foça, and there are historical windmills on it. Now it is on the verge of demolition, but it reminds you of history and gives you a beautiful view. Restoration of the windmills is planned in the near future.

Fatih Mosque:

It is in the Old Courthouse Street in the castle. It is the most important structure of Foça from the Turkish period. There are two inscriptions in the building. The inscription on the courtyard gate is dated 1531. According to the inscription, the Courtyard Gate was built by a person named Mustafa Ağa. According to the inscription on the main entrance, it was rebuilt by the order of Suleiman the Magnificent. It is understood from the inscriptions that the mosque was built by Fatih Sultan Mehmet after the conquest of Foça and surrounded by a courtyard in 1531, and then rebuilt in 1569-1570 by the order of Suleiman the Magnificent, only after his death.

Kayalar Mosque: 

It is inside the castle. It is a mosque with a rectangular plan and a flat ceiling. It is thought to have been built in the 15th or 16th century. Its minaret was built in the 19th century. Reused material from the Byzantine period was used, and the wooden ceiling covering it was renewed.

Hafız Süleyman Masjid: 

The building, known as Süleyman Ağa Masjid among the people, was built in 1548 by Kurt Hacı Mustafa, the Director of Foça Castle, according to the inscription on the entrance opening. It took its present form in the 18th-19th centuries. The mosque, which was closed for worship in 1917, was reopened in 1992.

SIREN   

ROCKS Sirens (seirens) and siren rocks appear for the first time in Homer's epic Odyssey. Sirens are bird-shaped and very beautiful female-headed creatures with broad wings. They blow men's minds with their enigmatic voices, the most beautiful murmurs of music and sensual moans. In Homer's Odyssey epic, King Odysseus's return from the Trojan war is told. Although nearly 10 years have passed since the war ended, Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, could not return to his homeland. He has been imprisoned on an island for years. The gods finally let him return to his homeland. Odysseus sets out with his twelve ships and his comrades, and struggles for three years at sea. According to the legend, Odyssey approaches the shores of Phokaia in the Aegean Sea, the island of the sirens told by the magician Circe. The sounds of sirens living on the rocks of this island (west of Orak Island in Foça) fascinated the sailors passing by, and the sailors who heard this sound would stay there until they died and perished. As Odysseus was about to pass through these cliffs with his ship, he had remembered the wizard Circe's warning about sirens. In order not to be caught in the magical screams of the sirens, he tied himself tightly to the mast of the ship with ropes, covered his mouth with a sponge and had his crew's ears plugged with wax. Thus, only he would hear the sound of the siren cliffs, then; Just as he was passing by the sirens, he wanted to order his crew to stay in this bay forever, but he could not succeed because his mouth was closed. While the sounds of the siren rocks, mingling with the roar of the wind and the enthusiasm of the waves, hit the shore of the bay, Odysseus' ship glided through this magical world and returned to his wife Penelope, who had been waiting for him for 20 years in Ithaca. This turn takes on different meanings with Kavavisin's lines. Arriving in Ithaca! It is a kind of symbol of an effort to reach a goal, an ideal, a hope, a love.

MEDITERRANEAN SEAL ( MONACHUS MONACHUS ) The

Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus Monachus) is one of the twelve rare mammals in the world. There are 400 seals in the world and about 100 seals in Turkey. Factors threatening the Mediterranean monk seal; They are killed, drowned by being caught in nets, the fish that are their food is decreasing, the shores are over-structured and they are disturbed by divers in their caves. Seals that love calm and quiet; they live in places without industrialization, settlement and marine pollution.