Küçükçekmece
Encyclopedia
Küçükçekmece is a large, crowded suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 on the European side of Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 23 km out of the city, beyond Atatürk Airport
Atatürk International Airport
Atatürk International Airport is the major international airport in Istanbul, Turkey. Opened in 1924 and located in Yeşilköy, on the European side of the city, it is west of the city centre. In 1980, the airport was renamed to Atatürk International Airport in honor of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the...

. The population of the area reaches 600,000. This area covers 118 km².

Location

Küçükçekmece is on the Marmara coast, on the eastern shore (nearest the city) of an inlet of the Marmara called Küçükçekmece Gölü. Across the inlet is the district of Avcılar
Avcilar
Avcılar is a district of Istanbul, Turkey, out of town on the European side of the city, just to the west of the Küçükçekmece inlet of the Sea of Marmara.-History:The Marmara coast road bridges the mouth of the inlet, always an important route in wartime...

 and the campus of Istanbul University. The inlet is connected to the Sea of Marmara
Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black...

 by a very narrow channel so the water is not salty. The streams running into the inlet now carry industrial waste and the inlet is highly polluted but efforts are being made to get it clean again. There used be wildlife and many kinds of birds and efforts to get the wildlife back are taking effect slowly.

History

The lagoon has almost always been controlled by whichever imperial power was in control of Istanbul as the road from the city to Europe passed by here.

Until the 1950s Küçükçekmece was a popular weekend excursion, people would come by train from Istanbul to swim, fish for eels or just sit by the water, while children played in the woods.

However the land here is flat, rising slightly away from the shore, and as such is easily built upon so as bigger and bigger roads have been built the area has become industrial and crowded with huge housing projects.

This development is still going on and is indeed accelerated as the TEM motorway to Europe passes through here now. The Ikitelli area in particular is very industrial and still more factories are being built. The Nuclear Energy Research center is on the lake side.

A long-lost ancient Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 city Bathonea
Bathonea
Bathonea is the name of a long-lost ancient Roman city that was found in 2009 to be located 20km from Istanbul in Turkey.Bathonea has been discovered in 2009 and it takes place in the 15 rankings of the world's most important discoveries on the American Institute of Archaeology. These excavations...

 was found in 2009 to be located 20km from Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. These excavations are conducted under the direction of Dr. Şengül Aydıngün, a professor of the Associate Professor of the Kocaeli University.
It distances just 20 kilometres away from Istanbul. Bathonea is located in a historical landscape eight kilometres wide. It has been hidden under farm lands, in a small inlet west of Istanbul on the banks of Lake Küçükçekmece
Küçükçekmece
Küçükçekmece is a large, crowded suburb on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey 23 km out of the city, beyond Atatürk Airport. The population of the area reaches 600,000. This area covers 118 km².-Location:...

. Some remains of this city could be submerged in the waters of this lake. A researcher found in a middle of the lake a lighthouse that belongs to Bathonea. If this is verified, it'll represent one of just three Roman lighthouses known to have existed in the eastern Mediterranean, next to those at Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 and Patara.

Küçükçekmece today

The population of Küçükçekmece is growing fast and it is acquiring schools, supermarkets, shopping centres and other facilities. However in most parts of Küçükçekmece this is very much a poor, working class neighbourhood, with much crime in dirty streets where men gather in badly lit cafes to play cards, drink tea and smoke cheap cigarettes. Most of the housing is illegally built gecekondu
Gecekondu
Gecekondu is a Turkish word meaning a house put up quickly without proper permissions, a squatter's house, and by extension, a shanty or shack...

. Most of the people are recent migrants from Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

, increasingly from the troubled south-east. Traditionally there has been much left-wing sympathy, but recently it seems changing to the central right-wing.

At sunset after walking by the lakeside, young people will find somewhere to sit, and they will drink Turkish tea, that is one of the bests Küçükçekmece offers.

Here there is the Galatasaray
Galatasaray
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club based in Istanbul, most notable for its football section, also known as Galatasaray S.K.. It also fields teams in Athletics, Basketball, Wheelchair basketball, Volleyball, Water polo, Swimming, Rowing, Sailing, Judo, Bridge, Equestrian, Handball,...

 rowing club.

Things to see

A historic bridge crosses the mouth of the lagoon, built by Mimar Sinan, the famous Ottoman
Ottoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...

architect. The bridge has been restored and is well maintained.
In the district of Kanarya there is a well-known meat and beans restaurant called 'Mandaci'.
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