Aydin is the chief county and administrative center of the fourteen counties of the province. Famous as a region of succulent figs and swashbuckling heroes, Aydin is situated in the middle of the Menderes basin where the southern slopes of the Aydin mountains meet the plain.
Because Aydin is centrally located in geographical terms and also because it is situated on both highway and railway routes over which the economic resources of the region are conveyed to the port of Izmir, the city has become an important population center.
While Aydin ranks fourth in terms of Turkey’s agricultural output the industrially advanced provinces surrounding it (izmir being foremost among them), have had a restrictive effect on Aydin’s industrial development.
With the rise of tourism in the Aegean coastal areas of the counties of Kusadasi and Soke not many years ago, investment activity shifted from the provincial center down to the sea. Blessed as it is with numerous ancient sites and a rich folklore set amidst the seven shades of green, such activities as the “Green Journey” and “Highland Tourism” begun recently in the ancient city of Aphrodesias and its vicinity in Karacasu, Aydin’s easternmost county, have the potential of spreading to every part of the province.
Though we lack definite information about its original founding, the city known as Tralles in ancient times was a prosperous and well-fortified settlement. The city was taken by Mentese Bey from the Byzantines around the end of the 13th century and it later came under the rule of the Aydinogullan principality. After 1308, the town was mown as Aydin Guzelhisar (”Beautiful Castle of Aydin”) and was ruled as = principality for about a century. In the early 15th century it came under Oticman rule and remained so as a province of the empire for five centuries.
With the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I, Aydin was occupied twice by the Greek army in 1919 and suffered considerable destruction by fire. Under the republic, the city was rebuilt in keeping with modern concepts of urban planning and as a result, the provincial capital is today a contemporary western Anatolian city with modern buildings and boulevards.
In addition to the ruins of ancient Tralles, Aydin also contains numerous examples of Turkish architecture — principally djamis (mosques), but also hammams (public baths), khans (roadside inns), medresses (theological academies), and masjids (small mosques). Aydin also possesses a fine museum, beautiful scenery, and opportunities for shopping and observing local ways of life and folklore.