Colorful Kemeraltı Bazaar From Past To Our Day – Commerce

In the 14th century, Izmir which was behind Foça, Çeşme, and Kuşadası in commerce, was under the dominance of Venetians and Geneosians in trade. After these communities, Izmir’s commerce passed into the hands of French, English, and Italians. Slowly, Izmir was passing from town to Metropol. The majority of commerce in Izmir in those times consisted of wool, cotton, silk, dried fruit, and spices.

In fact, because Izmir was situated at the west end of the Silkroad, it has always been an important element in commerce. All the goods which were produced in Anatolia were delivered to Greece, Italy, and to the countries in the Aegean sea from the Izmir port, and also all the goods which were produced in these countries were delivered to Anatolia from the Izmir port. This situation made Kemeraltı Bazaar which was in the city center, become an important trade point.

Kemeraltı Bazaar which has been in commerce continuously harbors 230 sectors, over 800.000 products, 14.482 shops, 10.000 artisans on 270 hectares area.

Because Kemeraltı was in a key location, in the 19th century particularly for sea commerce it was very important. In that period, different sectors like forge, spice, charcoal shops were born in the Bazaar and all of them were positioned in different areas.

Today in the streets of Kemeraltı that look like a labyrinth you can find anything from handicrafts to diamonds, clothing to jewelry, petshops to gourmet restaurants, spice shops to glasswares, basically anything…

Today, although Izmir port lost most of its importance, despite the shopping malls opened all around Izmir, Kemeraltı stays at a very important point where Izmir folk can find anything they are looking for.

That clients can bargain, taste the foods, try the clothes, and find multiple different products in one shop are the most distinctive characteristics of Kemeraltı Bazaar which separates it from modern shopping.