Foca, Turkey

Foca is a cute little town on the Aegean Sea, 70 kilometers (some 40 miles) north of Izmir. It's populations is around 36thousand people but in the summer time it goes up to 70 thousand with local and foreign holiday makers who prefer this area for its natural beauties, crystal clear water, small coves, and the climate. Some of Foca's bays are rewarded with the Blue Flag, securing the clean waters of an area in the Mediterranean, these are; 1st Mersinaki Cove (Samata Beach), 2nd Mersinaki Cove (Club Phokaia Hotel), 4th Mersinaki Cove (Hanedan Hotel), 3rd Mersinaki Cove (ex-Club Med), Yeni Foca Canak cove (Pollen Hotel). The town has many traditional stone houses which some of them have been used as boutique hotels. Foca is also famous for its Mediterranean Seals (Monachus monachus), which are under preservation. Actually the city took its name from the seals. Pass 23 km north Eski (Old) Foca, there is Yeni (New) Foca town, which has many summer houses. It was originally settled by Genoese who built a naval base here and called it Niyez Fokez or Phokainova, but today it's a modern summer resort for local people and doesn't offer much to foreign visitors. Phokaia was one of the 12 Ionian cities at the most northern part of the Aeolian region. Its name was mentioned in Homer's epic The Odyssey with the Sirens' Rocks. First inhabitants of Old Foca were immigrants from Greece around 9th century BC who escaped from Doric invasion. The city had two harbors and a very strong fleet which sailed all the way to the Adriatic and Spain to establish colonies such as; Emporion (Ampurias) in Spain, Alalia in Corsica, Velia in southern Italy, Massalia (modern Marseilles) in France, Lampsakos at the Dardanelles, and Amisos (modern Samsun) on the Black Sea. According to Herodotus, the world's first historian, Phocaeans were good sailors and traveled long distances with fast ships holding a capacity of 500 passengers, traded with Egypt, minted electrum (a mixture of gold and silver) coins etc. After Miletos, Phokaia became a very important port city on the Aegean.