Izmir

With Turkey lifting nationwide curfews and lockdowns as of July 1, local tourists have been flocking to some of the well-known tourism hubs in the Aegean region, giving a sigh of relief to the badly hit tourism industry that closed down for one and a half years during the pandemic.

The 2021 season excavations at the Ayasuluk Hill and St. Jean Monument will start on July 4 in Izmir.

Expert researchers from Istanbul University, Akdeniz University, Ege University, Dokuz Eylül University and Manisa Celal Bayar University will take part in the excavations.

The Satyr relief and statues from the ancient city of Smyrna are on display for visitors for the first time at the İzmir Archeology Museum in İzmir.

Unearthed from the Smyrna Agora and excavations near the city center, the artifacts shed light on the history of İzmir.

With the efforts in line with a massive cleanup campaign launched by the authorities to eliminate the problem of mucilage that has severely threatened the marine biome finally paying off, the Turkish seas are coming back to life once again.

Alaçatı, Turkey's leading spot in windsurfing and standing out with its architecture and authentic stone houses, is expected to have a dynamic tourism season this year.

Alaçatı, known as an infantry and cavalry village in the Ottoman period, is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Turkey. Its historical stone houses and cobblestones are a symbol of the western town.

An 1,800-year-old statue of a woman was unearthed in İzmir, Turkish officials announced on June 12.

In a Twitter post, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry's Department of Excavations said the statue was found in the ancient city of Metropolis located in İzmir's Torbalı district.

Dazzling onlookers, flamingos in western Turkey have started returning to an artificial island built as an incubation site for its pink-plumed visitors.

Two European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) were spotted on a security wire as they share and eat their prey in the Çiğli district of Turkey's Aegean İzmir province. (AA Photo)

Turkey rescued at least 109 asylum seekers aboard a faulty boat set to sail from a bay in Turkey's Aegean Izmir province.

Local gendarmerie teams learned that migrant smugglers were preparing to take asylum seekers to Italy by boat attached to a fishing port in the Karaburun district of Izmir.

A stone quarry used in the Hellenistic and Roman periods has been unearthed during a four-year surface survey in İzmir.