Walking Basmane, Izmir's quarter below Kadifekale

Uphill through Tilkilik

The lanes of Tilkilik climb from the station towards the Agora. Dönertaş Sebili (Tilkilik) sits on the first tight corner, built in 1814 as a small square single-domed marble sebil, carved with rococo panels and fitted with bronze dispensing grilles. The loose column set into the angle where the two façades meet began as a structural tell-tale, and locals turned the turning stone into a wishing stone. Entry is free. Stand on the wider pavement opposite to look at it properly.

İzmir Women's Museum (1298. Sokak No:14) opened on 23 January 2014 as Turkey's first women's museum. It occupies a restored three-storey İzmir house with a pale rendered façade, tall shuttered sashes and a projecting enclosed bay window, the cumba, over the lane. Period rooms and installation pieces fill the floors, and the house holds your attention as much as the exhibits do. Hours are 09:00 to 17:00 and entry is free. The rooms are small, so a party of more than 15 should phone 0232 484 04 81 before turning up.

Smyrna Agora Open Air Museum (Namazgah gate) is the largest piece of ancient Smyrna you can walk into, 10 minutes uphill from the station. Buy at the ticket desk by the Namazgah gate; no booking is needed. The foreign-visitor rate runs ₺250 to ₺300, and a Müzekart gets you in free. It opens daily, 08:30 to 19:00 in summer, closing at 17:00 in winter.

The columns on the upper terrace photograph well, but the basement galleries stay with people longer: dark vaulted brick and stone, standing water underfoot. Wear shoes you do not mind soaking. Find the carved keystone of the Faustina arch before you leave.

Kadifekale above the Agora

Kadifekale (Mt Pagos) stands directly uphill, and its position explains where the Agora lies. Ruined Hellenistic and Byzantine curtain walls and square towers ring the bare summit plateau. A vaulted cistern sits inside the circuit, with plastic teahouse chairs under a tree. The whole sweep of İzmir bay and Alsancak pier opens out below.

Nothing here is enclosed, nothing is charged, and the site stays open all day. Take a taxi or the 33 bus up rather than walking the back streets, and go in daylight. There is no museum building, so plan a short visit around the walls, the grass and the view.

Saint Voukolos, Hatuniye Camii and Saint Polycarp

Saint Voukolos Church (Ayavukla Kilisesi) was the only Greek Orthodox church in central İzmir to survive the fire of 1922. Restoration work began in 2008. The ochre-and-white single nave has round-arched windows and a low apse, and the interior is stripped back to stone and plaster, with wall frescoes of Christ and the archangels Michael and Gabriel emerging from old paint layers. The municipality runs the nave as an exhibition hall, so school parties and tour groups come through routinely. Entry is free and the doors open seven days a week. Check first that an exhibition is not being installed.

Hatuniye Camii (Hatuniye Square) was recorded by Evliya Çelebi before 1670. Its founder, Tayyibe Hatun, makes it one of only two İzmir mosques founded by a woman. It gives the square its name, and that square is the social centre of Basmane. The building is squat and stone, with one lead-covered dome and a single slim minaret, under trees. Inside, gold baroque plaster ornament covers the mihrab and the minbar is carved wood. It is a working mosque, free to enter outside prayer times: take your shoes off, women cover their heads, and avoid Friday midday.

Saint Polycarp Church (Gazi Osman Paşa Boulevard) was built in 1625 and is İzmir's oldest still-functioning church, about 600 m from the station. The exterior is plain stone with an octagonal bell tower at the south-west corner. Inside is a three-nave basilica painted wall to ceiling by Raymond Péré, with trompe-l'œil drapery and scenes of Polycarp's martyrdom. The parish is active and visiting hours are short and variable, commonly mid-afternoon. Ring or email the parish to confirm the day's opening before you walk up. Entry is free and a donation box stands inside.

Eating on Anafartalar Caddesi

At Dibek Tahmis (Anafartalar Cad. No:663) a mechanised steel bat pounds roasted beans to powder in a stone dibek mortar, and the smell carries down the street. Sacks of green and roasted coffee stand in the open shopfront beside brass pots and copper scales. The family has been at it for three generations and roughly 80 years. This is a counter rather than a café, so you drink standing or out on the pavement. It opens daily, 09:00 to 18:30, with a coffee at ₺60 to ₺90 and beans sold by the kilo. Give it 10 minutes.

Fatih Kebap Salonu (Anafartalar Cad. No:699) keeps its charcoal mangal right at the window, skewers of lamb liver and Adana over the coals. Ciğer şişi is the local order and this is the place to have it. A mixed Adana and kebab plate costs around ₺320, arriving on steel trays with lavash and onion-sumac salad. The room is small and the turnover is fast. It opens roughly 08:00 to 20:00, takes no bookings, and does its trade in the daytime.

Tarihi Basmane Fırını (Anafartalar Cad. No:850) has been baking on this spot since 1896 and stays open 24 hours. A wood-fired brick oven glows at the back of a bare-walled room, long wooden peels swing out, and trays carry coiled flaky boyoz, sesame simit and stacks of pide through the night. Boyoz, the savoury pastry İzmir inherited from its Sephardic community, runs ₺30 to ₺60, and it is what to come for. The evening batch sells out, so arrive early or very late. Service can be brusque; the baking is careful.

Sindibad Suriye Lokantası (1294. Sokak) stands directly opposite the station, 30 seconds from the forecourt. Basmane has been İzmir's Syrian and Arab quarter for a decade now, and this two-storey corner restaurant is the long-running pick of its kitchens. The falafel fryer works in the window, and plain tables carry platters of hummus, saffron rice and stuffed vegetables. Order the falafel and the hummus. It opens daily, 11:00 to 22:00, serves no alcohol and takes walk-ins. A full meal runs ₺250 to ₺400.

Rakı at Hayyam Meyhanesi

Hayyam Meyhanesi (Anafartalar Caddesi) has been open since the 1950s under the same proprietor's eye and has barely changed. Cold meze comes out from a chilled counter on trays to white paper-covered tables jammed together in one narrow room, under walls solid with framed photographs and old rakı advertising. A meze spread with rakı runs ₺600 to ₺900 a head. It trades evenings only, from 17:00.

Tables get pushed together readily, but it is one tight room, so phone 0232 483 43 56 for a party of more than six. Expect noise and cigarette smoke.

Tevfik Paşa Hamamı

Tevfik Paşa Hamamı (Anafartalar Cad. No:501) is an 18th-century domed bath from the Westernisation era, entered through a worn street door. Star-shaped glass oculi punched through the dome drop shafts of light onto the heated marble göbektaşı. Marble basins line the walls, and the water comes from local springs. A bath with scrub and foam costs ₺400 to ₺700. It runs from 06:00 to around 23:00 daily, and it serves the neighbourhood.

Sessions are traditional single-sex, so mixed parties split up. Arrange a visit on 0232 425 1474.

Kültürpark north of the station

Kültürpark (Lozan Gate) was laid out in 1936 and covers 42 walled hectares a few minutes north of the station. Plane-tree avenues run between 1930s exhibition pavilions, a lake carries pedal boats, and the concrete parachute tower and the Atatürk open-air theatre stand inside the grounds. Five gates serve the park, and the monumental Lozan Gate is the one to use from Basmane.

Entry is free and the gates stay open 24 hours, with charges only for fair and gallery events. The 2 km perimeter loop is the straightforward walk. The İzmir International Fair takes the park over each September, running 5 to 13 September in 2026.

Where to stay in Basmane

Basmane is İzmir's budget-hotel district, and Otel Antikhan (Anafartalar Cad. No:600) is the address in it with real history in the walls. The building went up as an 1857 han, and the conversion kept the arched stone courtyard under a glazed roof, the iron balustrades on the upper gallery and heavy old timber doors onto the bazaar street. Rooms are simple and the property is two-star, so expect plain and modest rather than boutique. A double runs ₺1,500 to ₺2,500 a night with breakfast included, and it has been reviewing well into mid-2026.

The Agora, Kemeraltı and the station are all walkable from the door. The Havra Sokağı synagogue cluster and Kemeraltı's Kızlarağası Hanı sit about 1 km west down Anafartalar. Book direct on 0232 489 27 50.

Days, hours and bookings

The İzmir Women's Museum closes on Sunday and Monday, and Fatih Kebap Salonu keeps shorter hours on Sunday. Ring the Saint Polycarp parish to confirm the day before you go, and phone ahead for a Hayyam table or a hammam session.

See the Izmir guide and the Izmir hotel search.