Qualla: Erdek

Erdek: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ozgur1000, CC BY-SA 3.0. Five kilometers east of Erdek's harbor, in a marshy field off the Bandırma road, the ground holds the buried bones of one of the ancient world's great cities. The columns of its Temple of Hadrian — taller than any others in the Greco-Roman world — were still standing in 1444. Erdek itself, the living town on the western shore of the Kapıdağ Peninsula, has a more modest recent history: a beach resort within a day's drive of Istanbul, a ferry port for the Marmara Islands, a navy base occupying the eastern approach. But the peninsula it anchors has been continuously inhabited and contested for roughly three millennia, and the quiet seafront promenade, the fish restaurants around the harbor, and the summer crowds at the beach northwest of town all sit on a landscape dense with accumulated time.

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Image: Ozgur1000 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Erdek: A Peninsula That Was Once an Island

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit (Anonymous), CC BY-SA 4.0. The Kapıdağ Peninsula juts into the Sea of Marmara from the Anatolian shore, connected to the mainland by the Belkıs Tombolo — a strip of sediment and sand about 1,700 meters wide. Until roughly 2,000 years ago, according to local tradition, the peninsula was an island. Earth tre...

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Image: (Anonymous) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Erdek: Greeks, Deportations, and Turkish Independence

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ollios, CC BY-SA 3.0. In the 1880s Erdek was a town of roughly its current size, and its population was predominantly Greek. These were Greek Orthodox communities with roots stretching back through the Byzantine and Ottoman periods to the ancient Greek colonization of the region in the 8th century BC....

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Image: Ollios | CC BY-SA 3.0

Erdek: The Town Today

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nevit Dilmen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Erdek's center revolves around its harbor and the ferry port 300 meters to the south. The Gestaş car ferry sails twice daily to Paşalimani Island and makes a circuit of Avşa, Ekinlik, and Marmara Island. Regular services connect to the Marmara Islands, taking about an hour and fo...

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Image: Nevit Dilmen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Erdek: The Ruins at the Edge of Town

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Olga Taş, CC BY-SA 4.0. The site of ancient Cyzicus lies roughly 5 km east of Erdek, at a place called Bal-Kız, and the distance is significant: it shows how large the ancient city actually was. The amphitheater ruins are at the northern edge of the site, the Temple of Hadrian's foundations to the south...

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Image: Olga Taş | CC BY-SA 4.0