Location:

Latitude & Longtitude: 38° 26' N 027° 8' E
Admirality Chart: 1522
Admirality Pilot: 48
Time Zone: GMT +2H
UNCTAD LOCODE: TR IZM

History of The Port

Izmir is a city which has enjoyed the benefits and advantages of being located in a trade and harbor region throughout the history.

 The name SMYRNA, which comes from an ancient queen who had  ruled the city was given to this distinguished city at the early stage of its foundation.

The city has experienced lots of changes in the history. It was under command of; the Greeks from Eol in 100 BC, Ions in 900 BC, and Lydian Empire Alyattaes who destroyed the city in 600 BC. 

After all, the city was re-built on the hills of Kadifekale by Alexander the Great, but unfortunately it suffered from the tremendous destruction of a great earthquake that happened in 300 AC. Then it was re-constructed by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. In the 7^th century it was attacked by Arabs and after these attacks it was captured until 1415 respectively by Byzantines, Seljuk’s, Genevas and the Crusaders. After 1415 it  became a Turkish city.

The commodities coming from Iraq, Iran, Syria and some other Far Eastern countries; would reach the customers and traders in Izmir, and  be transported to the European countries. The existing port and berth in Izmir was not able to cover the developing trade until 1860. Hence this condition was causing difficulties in loading/discharging operations of ships and also big losses to customs revenues because of extensive amounts of smuggling. Due to the beginning of the railway transportation in 1860s in the region, the commodity traffic from interior regions to the port increased and got faster. So it was necessary to establish a bigger port for the region to berth larger vessels for their loading/discharging operations. The construction autonomy of the new berth was given to a company, which was established by such English business men J. Charnaud, A. Baker and G. Guerracino in 1867. Company started the construction in 1869, but later a while the autonomy was transferred to a French company. The new berth opened to service in 1880. After that, a tramcar line was constructed through the berth. During day time the passengers were transported and at night trains of wagons,  carrying commodities, transferred from the railway station to the port by that tramcar line.

After the foundation of Republic of Turkey, the port was nationalized and transferred to the authority to the General Directorate of Port Authority of Izmir in 1934 and in 1936 the authority was transferred to Turkish Maritime Bank.

Meanwhile the new berth was transferred to TCDD in 1957 and in 1959 it  started its operations.

In 1984 the name of the operator of the berth was changed as General Directorate of Turkish Maritime Corporation.

In 1988 it was re-named Port Authority of Izmir and lastly on January 01, 1989 it was completely transferred to TCDD.

The Port of Izmir is still operated by TCDD and the recently it has been under a privatization process.

Passenger Facilities:

            Berth No 1 & 2 are for Passenger Ships. There is a Passenger terminal in service with its own cafes and stores. 3 Duty Free Shops serving passengers and seamen.

Passenger reception facilities and city brochures are provided by Izmir Chamber of Shipping. Municipality arranges tours to the city bazaar and other touristic places.

            For the last 3 years Izmir Cruise Shipping traffic has increased by %40 and the city, has become an important player in Turkish tourism.

            Last 3 years' figures show a steady growth which is expected to reach 107 ship calls and 400.000 passengers in 2007.

            The most common nationality of Passengers is Italian. This is followed by German, French, Spanish and English.