Walking Izmir's Kemeraltı bazaar from Konak to Basmane

Konak Square and the clock tower

Konak Square and the İzmir Clock Tower are where the bazaar begins. The tower went up in 1901, 25 metres of orientalist cream Marseille marble with four horseshoe-arched fountains round its base. Anafartalar Caddesi, Kemeraltı's spine, starts from this paving, and a few steps along it stands the tiled 18th-century Yalı Mosque. The ferry pier and the Gulf of İzmir are directly behind you, and pigeons lift off the stones all day. The square is free and open, and tour parties use the tower as their meeting point.

The Agora and the Archaeology Museum

The Agora was ancient Smyrna's civic centre, rebuilt after the quake of 178 AD, and it sits on UNESCO's tentative list. Two storeys of Roman basilica vaults stand in pale marble, with long rows of reconstructed Corinthian colonnades and arched brick cryptoporticus galleries below, all of it in a sunken grass lot under modern apartment blocks and Kadifekale hill. The site is ticketed and open-air. Summer hours are 08:30 to 19:00, with last tickets at 18:30. Winter hours are shorter. Buy at the kiosk or use a Müzekart. Guides are permitted.

Give one morning to both, and do the museum second. İzmir Archaeology Museum (Bahri Baba hill) is five minutes uphill from Konak Square, a 1984 concrete-and-glass block on a wooded slope, and the finds from the Agora ended up in it. The halls hold Roman marble portraits, grave steles and cases of Aegean glass, and the bronze Demeter and Poseidon pair came off the Agora site itself. The Gulf is visible from the terrace. It opens daily, 08:30 to 19:00 in summer and 08:30 to 17:30 in winter. Müzekart is accepted here too, and guides are allowed.

Havra Sokağı in the morning

Havra Sokağı is a narrow lane under strung awnings and bare bulbs, where the stalls push pyramids of olives and dried figs into the walkway. Fishmongers work it alongside spice and olive-oil sellers. The lane is the spine of the old Jewish quarter, and faded stone synagogue facades and iron doors sit between the shopfronts. The street is free and public. It is tight at peak, so go single file and keep your bag in front of you.

Booking the synagogues

Nine synagogues of the 16th and 17th centuries stand on and around Havra Sokağı, and most have been restored under the long-running İzmir Jewish Heritage Project. Bikur Holim, Signora Giveret, Algazi, Etz Hayim and Shalom are among them. You cannot walk in. Visits are by prior arrangement only, with a request form plus a passport copy sent at least 24 hours ahead to [email protected]; sizes and languages are handled on request. Book before you fly.

Inside, a raised tebah stands at the centre under a painted wooden ceiling, with carpets and low benches round all four sides and cut-glass oil lamps overhead. Next door the stone shell of Forasteros stands half-ruined and open to the sky. Talmud Tora is still awaiting work. Entry is ₺₺.

Hisar and Salepçioğlu mosques

Hisar Mosque (off a narrow bazaar lane) was commissioned between 1592 and 1598 and reopened after restoration and earthquake strengthening carried out between 2017 and 2019. It is İzmir's largest mosque, a stepped cluster of lead domes on eight pillars, and the interior walls are painted edge to edge in dense blue-and-gold florals around a carved marble mihrab. You enter through an arcaded porch. Entry is free. It is a working mosque: come outside the five prayer times, cover shoulders and knees, take your shoes off, and women should cover their hair.

Salepçioğlu Mosque (off Anafartalar Caddesi) was built between 1897 and 1905 and restored in 2012. The facing is green marble and white stone with baroque curves, under one tall slim minaret, and stairs climb to the prayer hall above what was a madrasa. It is wedged between shopfronts. Entry is free and the same dress rules apply.

Kızlarağası Hanı and coffee on 871. Sokak

Kızlarağası Hanı was built in 1744 by Hacı Beşir Ağa, when the sea still reached it, and restored in 1993. It is a square two-storey stone han with arched galleries on both levels around an open courtyard, holding 200 shops, with copper and silver hanging in every ground-floor doorway. Café tables fill the courtyard under parasols, and the Hisar Mosque minaret shows over the roofline. Entry is free and the courtyard is open to walk through. Allow half an hour.

Acı Kahve (871. Sokak) has been pouring since 1996 from a few low stools and copper trays set on the stones beside the han. Order fincanda pişen kahve, the Kemeraltı speciality: the thick white porcelain cup goes straight onto glowing charcoal and the coffee brews inside it, foam rising over the rim. Lokum comes on the saucer. It is cash only and takes no bookings.

Lunch in the hans

Ayşa Boşnak Börekçisi (Abacıoğlu Hanı) rolls its Bosnian börek by hand, and the coiled trays sit under glass on the counter beside the olive-oil meze. The room is the ground floor of the restored 18th-century han, stone arches and a glazed courtyard. It has held a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide in 2024, 2025 and 2026, at ₺ prices. Service is walk-in at the counter and there are no bookings. It is busiest between 12:00 and 14:00.

Kısmet Lokantası 1967 (Küçük Demir Han, off 913. Sokak) has been open since 1967 and works off a steam-table counter of 20 copper trays: bean stews, stuffed vine leaves, lamb elbasan, semolina halva. You point at the tray you want. The room is plain and refurbished, with paper-covered tables and men in overalls eating fast. This is what the traders themselves eat. Come before 13:00, because by evening the good trays are gone. No reservations, and the price band is ₺.

Kebab and kumru on the side lanes

Doyuran Manisa Kebap (866. Sokak) has been serving since 1970 out of a tiny tiled shopfront. Manisa kebap is the neighbouring province's dish: skewers of hand-shaped ground beef over charcoal, laid on torn pide soaked in butter and tomato under a mound of chopped onion and sumac. It opens 10:30 to 22:00 daily and costs ₺. The room seats four to six comfortably. A larger party should split or eat in shifts.

Kumrucu Ahmet (863. Sokak) grills İzmir's own sandwich at the pavement edge of an open-fronted stall. The sesame-crusted kumru roll is pressed over the coals until the kaşar cheese and sucuk ooze at the edges, with crates of tomatoes stacked behind the grill. It is ₺150 with an ayran. The counter is stand-up, open 08:00 to 20:00 daily, and you eat on the lane.

Lokum at the Anafartalar entrance

Şekerci Ali Galip (Anafartalar Caddesi entrance to the bazaar) was founded in 1901 and is run by the fifth generation of the same family, without a single day shut. Dark wood and glass cabinets hold slabs of pistachio and rose lokum dusted in icing sugar. The tins are printed with Ottoman and French script and views of the İzmir Kordon. The lokum and those period tins are what to carry home, at ₺₺. Staff hand out samples while you browse.

Rakı at the Basmane end

Most of Kemeraltı does not serve alcohol. Hayyam Meyhanesi (Anafartalar Caddesi, Basmane end) has done for 70 years, from a narrow old room of marble-topped tables crowded with small white meze plates. Rakı clouds in the glass, yellowed photographs and framed sheet music cover the walls, and Turkish art music plays low while people sit and listen. One man does most of the cooking and the running. Go early and take the evening slowly. It closes on Sundays and the price band is ₺₺₺. Call ahead for more than six.

Sleeping above the market

L'Agora Old Town Hotel & Bazaar (corner of Havra Sokağı and Anafartalar) is the one place to sleep inside the bazaar, 18 rooms in the restored 300-year-old Küçük Karaosmanoğlu Han. Stone arcades run round a glass-roofed courtyard café that seats 90, the bedroom walls are exposed masonry, and shopfronts are built into three of the outer facades. You wake above the market, and the deliveries start early. Rooms are ₺₺₺.

Before you go

Hayyam Meyhanesi closes on Sundays, the synagogue visits need their request form and passport copy at least 24 hours ahead, and the lokantas are a lunchtime proposition. Winter shortens the hours at both the Agora and the Archaeology Museum.

See the Izmir guide and the Izmir hotel search.