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The Turkish city of Balikesir (bah-LUK-eh-seer),
midway between Turkey's Marmara and
Aegean regions
(map), is known for
its olives and olive
oil, and for the Yagcibedir (YAH-juh-beh-deer)
carpets woven in nearby
villages.
It's also the capital city of the
province of Balikesir, which
includes tourism towns on the Sea
of Marmara such as Erdek, the bird sanctuary (kus
cenneti) at Manyas,
the train—ferry—bus transport nexus
of Bandirma, the hot
springs spa at Gönen, and
the Aegean seaside resorts of Ayvalik,
Edremit and Akçay.
If you stop in Balikesir,
look for the Clock Tower (Saat
Kulesi, 1827), the Yildirim
(Eski) Mosque (1388), and
the Zaganos Pasha Mosque complex (1461).
For most travelers, Balikesir is a
way-point on travel between Istanbul,
Bursa, Çanakkale, Bergama and
Izmir.
It has an active bus terminal,
railroad station (on the Bandirma—Izmir and Kütahya—Izmir lines), hotels, and
other necessary services, but not a
lot of reasons to linger if your time
is short.
At first glance, the city's name is
strange: "balik esir" means "fish
slave"
in Turkish; but in fact it is a corruption
of the town's Byzantine-Greek name
of Palaeokastron ("old
castle").
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Mountain
scenery near Mount Ida
(Kazdagi) in
the province of Balikesir.
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