Kemeraltı

Kemeraltı (more fully, Kemeraltı Çarşısı) is a historical market (bazaar) district of İzmir, Turkey. It remains one of the liveliest parts of İzmir.

The district covers a vast area extending from the level of the Agora of Smyrna (the quarters of Namazgah, Mezarlıkbaşı and İkiçeşmelik), to the seashore along the Konak Square.

It is bounded by the streets Fevzipaşa Boulevard on the northeast, Eşrefpaşa Street on the southwest, and Halil Rıfat Bashaw Street on the southeast, surrounded by ridges of Kadifekale.

The bazaar formed originally around a long street. In medieval times, it was called Street of the Mevlevis, in reference to the presence of a "dergah" (a building designed for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood). During the 17th Century, this street was filled in, which allowed the bazaar to extend. Today, the street, now called Anafartalar Caddesi ("Anafartalar Street"), winds to complete the circle of the shallow inner bay in a wide curve.

A milestone in the bazaar's development was the building in 1592 of the Hisar Mosque ("Fortress Mosque"). This is the oldest, most significant Ottoman landmark in İzmir (although built by Aydınoğlu Yakup Bey, descendant of the dynasty that had founded the Beylik, whose family the (Aydinids) had controlled İzmir prior to Ottoman conquest). "Fortress" in the name of the mosque refers to its predecessor, the Genoese Castle or Fortress of "San Pietro", earlier called Neon Kastron in Byzantine times, which stood on the same location. Final remains of the castle were removed during construction of new port installations (1867–1876).

The market itself came into existence with the filling between 1650–1670 of the shallowest parts of the inner bay. The process of gaining ground from the bay was pursued in 1744 with the construction of Kızlarağası Han, an impressive caravanserai (and surviving to the present) that emerged as the nucleus of the market, together with two older "hans", the term implying a caravanserai with more markedly urban characteristics, that have not survived to this day. These was the "Great Vezir Han" constructed by the 17th-century grand vizier Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, and the neighboring "Little Vezir Han" constructed by his successor Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. Another historically important han (that no longer exists) was "Cezayir Han" (literally "Han of Algiers"), from where western Anatolia's excess labor force had been annually dispatched to the Ottoman protectorate of Algiers for centuries.

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