İzmir Province (Turkish:İzmir ili) is aprovince andmetropolitan municipality ofTurkey in westernAnatolia, situated along theAegean coast. Its capital is the city ofİzmir, which is in itself composed of the province's central 11 districts out of 30 in total. To the west, it is surrounded by the Aegean Sea, and it encloses theGulf of Izmir. Its area is 11,891 square kilometres (4,591 square miles),[2] and its population is 4,462,056 (2022).[1] Neighboring provinces areBalıkesir to the north,Manisa to the east, andAydın to the south. Thetraffic code of the province is 35.
It is one of the oldest cities and ports of ancient Ionia in the Mediterranean Sea. The original settlement was founded around 3000 BC, and the city has survived through different iterations to this day. It was inhabited by Greek populations from antiquity until the destruction of Smyrna in 1922 and the exchange of populations that followed with the Treaty of Lausanne. In its long history it has changed location twice.
The first location (prehistoric times) was mentioned by Strabo as "Old Smyrna" and the second location was built byAlexander the Great and his descendants (Hellenistic period).Ionians, in about 11th centuryBC, established the League ofIonia. It was later conquered by thePersians and retaken by the Greeks before being subsumed into theRoman Empire. In Roman times it became very prosperous and the Romans honored it three times with the praiseworthy title of "young girl" because of its amazing prosperity.
The term "Catholic Church" was first used in 110 in a letter from St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Church of Smyrna. After the split of the Roman Empire, the area became part of what is now called theByzantine Empire until it was conquered by theOttoman Turks in the 14th century. In 1424, Smyrna was conquered by the Ottomans. However, before and after its occupation, Venetians and Genoese tried several times to include it in their Republics.
As a result of the 1923Treaty of Lausanne, all Greek Orthodox inhabitants of the province weredeported, and İzmir Province was incorporated into the modern republic ofTurkey.
Anearthquake on 30 October 2020 killed 117 people in the area.[3]
The2025 Izmir wildfires began in June 2025 and continued into July, causing evacuation of over 50,000 people and large scale damages.[4]
In January 2021, archaeologists headed by Elif Koparal, announced the discovery of the ruins of a 2500 year-old temple ofAphrodite from the5th century BC in theUrla-Çeşme peninsula. Among other findings in and around the temple, they found a statue piece depicting a woman, aterracotta female head and an inscription that reads, "This is the sacred area". The traces of the temple were first excavated in 2016.[5][6][7][8]
The ancient city ofEphesus is in the Province ofİzmir
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