Hard though it may be to believe it but one of the highlights of your trip to Turkey could actually turn out to be a fish supper eaten in one of the many restaurants that line İzmir’s Kordon (AKA Birinci Kordon), the landscaped promenade that skirts the Gulf of İzmir (İzmir Körfezi) and is perfectly poised to scoop some superlative sunsets. Kordonboyu Balık Pişiricısı is one of the best if you can manage to land a table there.
Once upon a time this part of İzmir was lined with the imposing stone hotels, shops, cinemas, cafes and clubs of old Smyrna that had caused the city to be dubbed “the Pearl of the Levant”. Almost all these buildings were lost to the fire of 1922. Only a handful of old houses – including the ones that used to house the old French, German and Greek Consulates – survive as well as another that now serves as an Atatürk Museum. The old French Consulate now houses the Arkas Sanat Galerisi with changing exhibitions of art and craftwork.
At the northern Alsancak end of the Kordon huge concrete struts that were intended to carry a flyover along the waterfront stand as a silent memorial to human stupidity.
The landscaped part of the Kordon runs out at Cumhuriyet Meydanı, a large empty space dominated by an equestrian statue of Atatürk on the site of the lost Grand Kraemer Hotel. Around it are grouped some of the city’s finest modern hotels.
The Kordon extends as far south as Konak where a pier designed by Gustave Eifel now houses a small shopping and restaurant complex.
Sleeping
Hotel Kilim. Tel: 0232-484 5340
İzmir Hilton. Tel: 0232-497 6060
Mövenpick Hotel. Tel: 0232-488 1414
Swissotel Büyük Efes. Tel: 0232-414 0000
Transport info
The Kordon is within easy walking distance of Alsancak, Basmane and most central districts. In 2015 phaetons still waited to ferry visitors along it to Cumhuriyet Meydanı and Konak. I suspect they have been banished since.
Read more about the Kordon and Alsancak: http://www.turkeyfromtheinside.com/blogbloggingaboutturkey/entry/30-chain-store-satisfaction.html
