MUSEUMS
Discover the Museums in Urla
01. Klazomenai Olive Oil Workshop
The oldest olive oil factory in history: It is the first olive oil production facility in Anatolia. The olive oil workshop found during the Klazomenai excavations between 1992 and 1995 dates back to BC. It is thought to belong to the 6th century and was built by the Ionians. As a result of the detailed renovation carried out between 2004-2005, it opened its doors to visitors as a museum. It shows that Ionia has made great technological contributions to the improvement and transformation of the wild olive tree, which is distributed from the eastern Mediterranean basin to the western Mediterranean basin, into a cultivated plant and to obtain oil from its fruits.
02. Köstem Olive Oil Museum
Köstem Olive Oil Museum (KZM), located in Uzunkuyu District of Urla District of Izmir, is the largest olive oil museum complex in the world. The museum, where all olive oil production techniques used in Turkey from past to present can be seen, also covers education, learning, research, science, art, design and project management functions in line with the understanding of museology that has developed in recent years.
Köstem Olive Oil Museum, which aims to ensure that all olive oil crushing systems that have been established in the geography of Turkey so far are included in the museum at a scale of 1/1, shows in the best way what the olive cultivation and culture of Turkey, especially the Aegean and Urla Peninsula, which are almost never mentioned in the most visited olive oil museums abroad, actually contain.
The museum plan also includes a laboratory that will serve the environment as well as storage and bottling departments with the most modern techniques of today. In this context, planning studies were carried out and efforts to establish a museum in line with this plan continued.
The materials in the museum, where you can see all the olive oil production techniques used in Turkey from past to present, were collected from the entire Aegean Region, from Sındırgı to Muğla. For this, the materials were evaluated and purchased by visiting the village by village.
Köstem Olive Oil Museum is actually a technology museum and is the second industry museum after Koç museum.
03. Limantepe Excavations
Urla Limantepe Excavations carried out by Ankara University sheds light on important historical information about the oldest settlement of the region. Limantepe is known as the oldest settlement of Urla. It is one of the ports of the ancient city of Klazomenai, BC. It was one of the most important port cities of the Aegean in 3 thousand BC.
04. Vehbi Koç Marine Archeology Research Center
The Ankara University Center for Underwater Archaeological Research and Practice, in collaboration with the Vehbi Koç Foundation, TINA Turkey Underwater Archaeology Foundation, and Urla Municipality, opened the Mustafa Vehbi Koç Center for Marine Archaeology Research in Urla, İzmir.
The center, consisting of five different units, was established on an 11-acre area in Urla Çeşmealtı allocated by the Urla Municipality in 2009. The center includes a restoration laboratory, storage area, library aimed at hosting national and international research, a conference hall serving the region, a 4-acre exhibition area displaying reconstructions reflecting developments in maritime technologies from ancient times to the present, and a 30-person capacity dormitory for project participants. The center, which will make significant contributions to the field of underwater archaeology, will also serve as the face of Turkey for international collaborations related to underwater archaeology. The Arkeopark, which is part of the project, is also aimed at contributing to tourism activities in the region
05. Necati Cumalı Museum House
Necati Cumalı, our famous writer who has produced many literary works such as poetry, novel, story, essay, theater, and diary, settled in Urla district of Izmir with his family in the 1923 population exchange after the War of Independence. The writer, who grew up, studied and worked here, has his house now serving as a museum house, and one of its rooms on the ground floor serves as the district library. In addition to his literary personality, Cumalı, who also worked as a lawyer, has some personal belongings, awards, plaques, and movie posters based on his works exhibited in the museum.