Ayvalık

Ayvalık (Turkish: [ˈajvaɫɯk]; Greek: Αϊβαλί, Κυδωνίες) is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. It is a district of Balıkesir Province. The town center of Ayvalık is surrounded by the archipelago ofAyvalık Islands, which face the nearby Greek island of Lesbos.

It was alternatively called Kydonies (Κυδωνίες) by the town's former Greek population; although the use of the name Ayvalık was widespread for centuries among both the Turks and the Greeks, pronounced as Ayvali(Αϊβαλί) by the latter.

Ayvalık is a district in Turkey's Balıkesir Province on the Aegean Sea coast. It is situated on a narrow coastal plain surrounded by low hills to the east which are covered with pine and olive trees. Ayvalık is also surrounded by the archipelago of the Ayvalık Islands (the largest of which is Cunda Island) on the sea and by a narrow peninsula in the south named the Hakkıbey Peninsula. Ayvalık is the southernmost district ofBalıkesir. Gömeç, Burhaniye and Edremit are other districts of the Balıkesir Province which are situated on the Aegean shores and they are lined up respectively to the north. The region is under the influence of a typical Mediterranean climate with mild and rainy winters and hot, dry summers.

Various archeological studies in the region prove that Ayvalık and its environs were inhabited as early as the prehistoric ages. Joseph Thacher Clarke believed that he had identified it as the site of Kisthene, mentioned by Strabo as a place in ruins at a harbour beyond Cape Pyrrha.^[3] Kisthene was further identified by Engin Beksaç of Trakya University, as Kız Çiftlik, near the centre of Gömeç.

The Ayvalık Region was studied by Beksaç in his survey of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric settlements on the Southern Side of the Gulf of Adramytteion (Edremit). The survey showed different settlements near the centre of Ayvalık which appear generally to relate to the Early Classical Periods.^{[citation needed]} However, some settlements near the centre of Altınova were related to the Prehistoric Period, especially the Bronze and Iron Ages. Kortukaya, identified by Beksaç in his survey project in the 1990s and early 2000s, aids understanding of the interaction between the peoples of the interior and of the coast. Kortukaya is one of the most important settlements, along with another settlement, Yeniyeldeginmeni, near the centre of Altınova.

Traces of a hillfort were identified by Beksaç on Çıplak Island or Chalkys. Some Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Pottery fragments related to the Aeolians were found on the same island. Two tiny settlements, near the centre of Ayvalık, were settlements in the Peraia of Mytilene.

AYVALIK PRIVATE SECURITY COMPANY