Manisa

Manisa ( ) is a city in Turkey and the administrative seat of Manisa Province, lying approximately 40 km northeast of the major city of İzmir. The city forms the urban part of the districts Şehzadeler and Yunusemre, with a population of 385,452 in 2022. Modern Manisa is a center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port city and the regional metropolitan center of İzmir and by its hinterland rich in quantity and variety of agricultural production. İzmir's proximity also adds dense traffic of daily commuters between the two cities, separated by a half-hour drive served by a six-lane highway across Mount Sipylus's mythic scenery. The historic part of Manisa spreads out from a forested valley in the immediate slopes of Sipylus mountainside, along Çaybaşı Stream which flows next to Niobe's "Weeping Rock" ("Ağlayan Kaya"), an ancient bridge called the "Red Bridge" ("Kırmızı Köprü") as well as to several tombs-shrines in the Turkish style dating back to the Saruhan period (14th century). Under Ottoman rule in the centuries that followed, the city had already extended into the undulated terrain at the start of the plain.…

Manisa ( ) is a city in Turkey and the administrative seat of Manisa Province, lying approximately 40 km northeast of the major city of İzmir. The city forms the urban part of the districts Şehzadeler and Yunusemre, with a population of 385,452 in 2022. Modern Manisa is a center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port city and the regional metropolitan center of İzmir and by its hinterland rich in quantity and variety of agricultural production. İzmir's proximity also adds dense traffic of daily commuters between the two cities, separated by a half-hour drive served by a six-lane highway across Mount Sipylus's mythic scenery. The historic part of Manisa spreads out from a forested valley in the immediate slopes of Sipylus mountainside, along Çaybaşı Stream which flows next to Niobe's "Weeping Rock" ("Ağlayan Kaya"), an ancient bridge called the "Red Bridge" ("Kırmızı Köprü") as well as to several tombs-shrines in the Turkish style dating back to the Saruhan period (14th century). Under Ottoman rule in the centuries that followed, the city had already extended into the undulated terrain at the start of the plain. In the last couple of decades, Manisa's width more than tripled in size across its vast plain formed by the alluvial deposits of the River Gediz, a development in which the construction of new block apartments, industrial zones and of Celal Bayar University campus played a key role. The city of Manisa is also widely visited, especially during March and September festivals, the former festival being the continuation of a five-hundred-year-old "Mesir Paste Distribution" tradition, and also for the nearby Mount Spil national park. It is also a departure point for other visitor attractions of international acclaim which are located nearby within Manisa's depending region, such as Sardes and Alaşehir (ancient Philadelphia) inland. The city also had a Jewish community.

Name and etymology

–Luwian rock carving of Cybele in Mount Sipylus (13th century BC)]] Historically, the city was also called Magnesia, and more precisely as Magnesia ad Sipylum, to distinguish it from Magnesia on the Maeander at a relatively short distance to the south. Traditional view held that the name "Magnesia" is derived from the tribe of Magnetes who would have immigrated here from Thessaly at the dawn of the region's recorded history. A connection with native Anatolian languages has also been suggested, particularly on the basis of discoveries made in the Hittite archives. The name is rendered as Μαγνησία in ancient and modern Greek language. The name "Magnesia ad Sipylus" refers to Mount Sipylus (Mount Spil) that towers over the city and Magnesia became a city of importance starting with the Roman dominion, particularly after the 190 BC Battle of Magnesia. The names "Sipylus" or "Sipylum" in reference to a settlement here are also encountered in some sources, again in reference to the mountain and as abbreviated forms. Pliny the Elder, supported by other sources, mentions that formerly in the same place was a very celebrated city which was called "Tantalis" or "the city of Tantalus" whose ruins were still visible around his time. Under Turkish rule, the name attached to the Beys of "Saruhan", who founded the Beylik which preceded the Ottomans in the region, has been officially used, along with the name Manisa, for the city and the region alternatively and this until the present period of the Republic of Turkey. The Ottoman Turkish form of the name "Manisa" (ماغنيسا) was usually as it is still used presently, but a spelling with a longer first syllable, transcribed to modern Turkish as "Mağnisa", was also occasionally encountered. During the first centuries of the Ottoman Empire, many of the sons of sultans received their education in Manisa and the city is still commonly known in Turkey as "the city of shahzades" (Şehzadeler şehri), a distinctive title it shares only with Amasya and Trabzon. The English language root word "magnesia", from which the words "magnet" and "magnetism" and numerous other derivations were coined, as well as their equivalents in many other languages, may derive from the city's name.

Early Bronze

The second finds are tombs contemporaneous with Troy II (3000-2500 BC) and found in the village of Yortan near Kırkağaç district center, north of Manisa. Original burial practices observed in these sepulchres led scholars to the definition of a "Yortan culture" in Anatolia's prehistory, many of whose aspects remain yet to be explored.

Late Bronze Age

Luwians and Hittites

Central and southern parts of western Anatolia entered history with the still obscure Luwian kingdom of Arzawa, probably offshoots, as well as neighbors and, after around 1320 BCE, vassals of the Hittite Empire. Cybele monument located at Akpınar on the northern flank of Mount Sipylus, at a distance of from Manisa on the road to Turgutlu is, along with the King of Mira rock relief at Mount Nif near Kemalpaşa and a number of cuneiform tablet records are among the principal evidence of extension of Hittite control and influence in western Anatolia based on local principalities. Cybele monument by itself represents a step of innovation in Hittite art where full-faced figures in high relief are rare.

Iron Age

Classical Age

Cuisine

The cuisine of Manisa is known for several types of kebabs. Manisa kebab is a type of shish kebab prepared with a combination of minced beef and lamb. It is served on chopped up pita and with grilled tomato and peppers, and onion salad. Lastly, melted butter and sumac is added on top. It may also be served with yogurt. ]]

Health

Air pollution is a chronic problem here.

Twin towns – sister cities

Manisa is twinned with: Ingolstadt, Germany Khartoum, Sudan Monastir, Tunisia Morphou, Cyprus Oral, Kazakhstan Osh, Kyrgyzstan Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina Skopje, North Macedonia Yiwu, China Höganäs, Sweden Forlì, Italy

Notes

Sources

External links

Celal Bayar University Mesir Festival web site - English language pages Lost City (Continent) Atlantis was in Manisa? 200 Manisa pictures, many of its monuments

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377832700 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.