Zeytindağ
Encyclopedia

Geography

Zeytindağ is a town in Bergama
Bergama
Bergama is a populous district, as well as the center city of the same district, in İzmir Province in western Turkey. By excluding İzmir's metropolitan area, it is one of the prominent districts of the province in terms of population and is largely urbanized at the rate of 53,6 per cent...

 district of İzmir Province
Izmir Province
İzmir Province is a province of Turkey in western Anatolia on the Aegean coast, whose capital is the city of İzmir. On the west it is surrounded by the Aegean sea, and it encloses the Gulf of İzmir. Its area is 11,973 km.2, population 3.948.848 . The population was 3,370,866 in 2000...

, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. At 38°58′N 27°04′E it is situted 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

 side and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of Bakırçay  valley. The distance to Bergama is 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) and to İzmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

 is 80 kilometres (49.7 mi). The population of the town is 3208 as of 2010.

History

Zeytindağ history dates back to ancient ages.There are ruins 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) west of Zeytindağ center. These ruins are thought to be of the ancient port city of Elaea
Elaea
Elaea can refer to any of several different items in ancient geography.cities* Elaea , port of Pergamum, now near Zeytindağ, İzmir Province, Turkey* Elaea , port in ancient Aethiopia...

. This city was founded before the Ionians settled in Aegean coasts. But it flourished during the kingdom of Pergamon
Pergamon
Pergamon , or Pergamum, was an ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey, in Mysia, today located from the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus , that became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 281–133 BC...

. After the sea shore receded because of the gradual accumulation of alluvial deposit, Elaea lost its former importance.

According to town page the former name of the town in the Medieval ages was Kilisköy or Kiliseköy referring to calcareous soil around the town (Kilis means lime in Ottoman Turkish) In 1909, the town was renamed Reşadiye in the name of the new Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 sultan Mehmet V, (also called Reşat) and then Zeytindağ referring to Olive production of the town. (Interestingly enough, the name Elaea seems to mean Olive grove and the present name of the town Zeytindağ means Olive mountain.)
In 1953, the village was declared a seat of township.
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