Kayaköy (literally "rock ville") is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of

Ödemiş Ödemiş () is a municipality and district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,019 km2, and its population is 132,740 (2022). It is located 113 km southeast of the city of İzmir. About 4 km north of Ödemiş town are the ru ...

, İzmir Province,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its population is 1,107 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (''

belde Belde (literally "town", also known as ''kasaba'') means "large village with a municipality" in Turkish language, Turkish. All Turkish province centers and district centers have municipalities, but the Villages of Turkey, villages are usually too ...

''). The distance from Kayaköy to Ödemiş is and to

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

is .

History

The area around Kayaköy was a zeamet (a kind of

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

) during Ottoman era. But beginning by the 19th century, Ottoman government began settling nomadic tribes to former fief lands. A part of the Turkmen tribe of ''Sarıkeçili'' from South

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

was settled in Kayaköy. Kayaköy was declared a seat of township in 1990.

Economy

Kayaköy is situated in a fertile plain. But irrigation facilities need to be developed. Once popular industrial crops like tobacco and cotton are no more popular. They are replaced by potato, pepper and watermelon. Animal husbandry and dairy farming, the traditional source of living of the nomads, are still popular.

Trivia

The mansion of Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe, a bandit and a folk hero, is in Kayaköy and the governance of İzmir Province has decided to restore the mansion. (His grave is also in Kayaköy.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kayakoy, Izmir Neighbourhoods in Ödemiş District