Ephesus Hotels

Terrace Houses Hotel – Ephesus – Turkey

izimbozada — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:17:57 +0000

Terrace Houses is a family run enterprise consisting of 3 heritage cottages overlooking the magnificent valley of Sirince . Olive House, Fig House and Grapevine House all have their own distinctive character and were lovingly restored over 6 years. Our visitors come from all over the world to enjoy these fully furnished homes full of rustic antiques from around Turkey. The cost for a private cottage is 260 ytl per night and this includes a generous breakfast basket served at your convenience. Each house has a wood burning fireplace, luxurious bathroom, comfortable furnishings, a well equipped kitchen and large double beds. Music, filter coffee and a selection of teas are provided to make you feel at home right from the start and we supply our own organic olive oil for you to use in the kitchen. In the summer you can enjoy candlelit dinners under the sky in Terrace Café with unmatched views across the village to the hills beyond. In the winter you will be greeted by a fire and the cottages make an ideal romantic weekend break. Terrace Houses are a perfect base from which to explore the surrounding hillside providing endless walks as well as being ideally placed for guests to visit the many historic sites in the area.

İzim Bozada

Source: www.boutiquehotelsofturkey.com

Sirince Houses Hotel – Ephesus – Turkey

izimbozada — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:14:48 +0000

Welcome to simple elegance in the heartland of Anatolia…

SIRINCE EVLERI is the first boutique hotel of Sirince, a place referred to by Dido Sotiriou as “paradise on Earth” in her famous novel “Farewell Anatolia”. Opened in 1993, this smallest hotel of Sirince has only 6 rooms and 14 beds. The owner is from İstanbul: Ahmet Kocak.

SIRINCE EVLERI consists of two rustic Greek houses, Altınyaprak and Karadut, restored in keeping with local architectural characteristics, in every corner of which you will find traces of 19th century Anatolian culture. Altınyaprak, located in the center of the village, is the first house which the owner Kocak “fell in love with at first sight”. Built by the Greeks before the Turkish-Greek exchange in 1924, the house is now 97 years old. With its doors and hall ceiling carved in rosewood, remains of the Greek era, Altınyaprak is full of ancient furniture collected from Anatolian villages and cities by Ahmet Kocak during his years of work as a tourist guide. The building carries the 19th century traditional characteristics of a provincial mansion with its bathroom designed as a Turkish bath (hamam) and the oriental hall with fireplace. It was recently registered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as a sample of cultural heritage to be preserved in its original state. Karadut, the main unit of SIRINCE EVLERI, was built as a mansion 107 years ago by Vassili, a rich tobacco merchant from Kirkica. Today it has 4 air-conditioned rooms with private bathrooms. The welcoming terrace also hosts breakfast with a picturesque panorama of magical beauty.
SIRINCE EVLERI invites its distinguished guests to discover the atmosphere of an ethnographic museum with ancient furniture and authentic decoration selected with great care. With its unspoilt cultural mission of bringing its guests together with the practical and ancient values of the Anatolian people, SIRINCE EVLERI provides the expected comforts of modern daily life with hot water, heating and air-conditioning. Starting 12 years ago as the first provincial example of the “boutique hotel” concept, SIRINCE EVLERI is now a place of international renown. The owner, Ahmet Kocak, explains the secret of this success as due to his management formula, consisting of: – maintaining principles… In order to continue providing quality service, we have decided to remain the smallest hotel in Şirince now and in the future. In other words, despite the increasing number of guests and requests we receive every year, SIRINCE EVLERI will always be a boutique hotel consisting of two houses, limited to their original capacity of 6 rooms. – knowing that smiling, friendliness and sincerity are the basics of boutique hotel management… That is why we employ friendly and open-hearted young people from the village who are natural communicators with our guests, rather than numerous multilingual service personnel. – providing customised service… We welcome you on our panaromic terrace and arrange your breakfast at the time you set, reserving the place for you only, ensuring your privacy. – protecting the environment… We are the custodians of the natural beauty of Sirince. We, therefore, do our best to ensure that all organic and inorganic waste from our establishment is recycled. We re-use fax and printer paper. We collect our garbage, separately packed for plastic, metal and glass, and carry it to İzmir for re-cycling. Tomato and orange peels are given to neighbours’ cows, and left over cheese, sausages, and milk are for the cats and dogs, a sign of responsibility and awareness of the fact that life on Earth concerns all those who dwell upon it. – acting upon your comments… We know that we are not perfect, despite our meticulous care, and depend on your comments and recommendations to be even better in the future. – knowing that the small details can make a big difference… We look forward to seeing you among our distinguished guests at SIRINCE EVLERI.

Şirince, şirince accomodation, şirince guest houses, şirince hotels, şirince pensions

Source: www.boutiquehotelsofturkey.com

Kirkinca Boutique Hotel – Sirince – Ephesus – İzmir

izimbozada — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:13:16 +0000

Kırkınca Hotel invites you to witness the miracle created by nature and history hand in hand; to rest and enjoy yourself far from the chaos of the city… Ayasuluk Castle, Mother Mary’s House, Church of St. Jean, Celsus Library, İsabey Mosque, Grotto of the Seven Sleepers, Ephesus Amphitheatre, Hillside Houses, Hadrianus Temple and other historical landmarks surround the village of Sirince, with its lovely nature at an altitude of 350 meters and its various activities… Our rooms, designed for the perfect vacation, and our houses which welcome you instantly, will both make you feel at home, at the place where you were born… To deserve your attention and to match Sirince’s charm, Kırkınca Houses offers you the best service, along with a smiling face and the warmth of friendship since 2000. Thanks to Kırkınca Houses, you will leave your heart in Sirince…
Şirince, şirince accomodation, şirince guest houses, şirince hotels, şirince pensions

Source: www.boutiquehotelsofturkey.com

Sirince Village İn History – Ephesus Turkey

izimbozada — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:11:05 +0000

SIRINCE VILLAGE IN HISTORY

The village of Sirince referred in ancient sources as the Ephesus on the Mountain suggests long established settlement. Although there seems to be no concrete indication of how it came onto the stage of history, the dominant theory is that a small group of people resettled on the mountain, following the fall of the city of Ephesus and its harbour being moved to Kusadası (Scala Nova). The people might have preferred to move and settle in the mountains due to problems caused by the silting and the flooding of the river Meander.
It is told in the village today that this new village on the mountain was called Cirkince, meaning rather ugly, with the intention of drawing less attention and interest of outsiders, thus ensuring security. One of the principal anecdote abput naming of the village tells that a group of Byzantine Greeks who were freed from the dominion of Aydınogulları and sent away for re-settlement, were asked by the neighbouring villagers whether the new place they had settled was nice or not. The answer was rather ugly.

The oldest building in Sirince is from the Hellenistic period, initially built as a tower initially, and most probably left from the Lysimakhos era corresponding to the time when the city of Ephesus was established. It was part of an early warning system built in the Klasseas Valley which was of strategic military importance. The building has had some alterations during the Byzantine period and is locally thought to have been a monastery.
A ceramic seal with the name of Georgeos used to brand bread in a bakery was found in a peach garden indicating the existence of a community life in the region in the Byzantine period.
The oldest travel notes about Kirkica are in the book of memories called A Visit to Turkey and Return to Britain, written by a scholar priest Edmund D. Chishull , who lived in Izmir during 1698-1702. Leaving Tire, Chishull reached the ancient city of Ephesus on April 30,1699. As the book reveals, the place to stay for the night around Ephesus is the village of Kirkidje. Chishull and his guide arrived in the village at around eight oclock in the evening tracing along the Klassen Valley in the east of Ayasuluk hill. Lets now listen to Chishulls words:
… Accompanied by our guide and on horseback, we went along a river with small springs, a long but pleasant journey of about an hour and a half, riding between the two hills below the Ephesus fortress and accompanied by the cooling shadows of myrtles, oleanders, Judas trees, Scots brooms, lilacs and others.
Spending the night in the tents of the muleteers, they visited the village on the next day, on May 1st. Chishull states that all the inhabitants were Christian.
… The village priest wanted to show us the supposedly hand-written pages of the Bible. It was a Bible believed to have been written by Prochorus who was one of the seven assistant priests mentioned in the book called The Achievements of the Apostles. We examined it and found out that it was either a copy of the Bible or a prayer book from the 6th or 7th centuries.
It is recorded that Chishull and the group left Kirkinca village for Ephesus the same day in the afternoon.
Kirkinca was a village of 1800 households of Byzantine Greeks during the Ottoman reign in the 19th century.

World War I started in 1914 with all its violence in Anatolia. The Ottoman government registers the young Byzantine Greeks of the Kirkica Village to join the Worksmen Battalion. However, those running away from the battalion either go to he mountains to live as a gang of brigands or took refuge in Greece to boycott. Those who could survive the war return to their village when the war ends. Dido Sotiriyu reflects about those years in her novel called Farewell Anatolıa writing:
The Germans had left behind their munitions stores in the ancient Ephesus. The Turkish gendarme appointed by the Mondros Armistice to hand them over to the allies had run away. Following the night fall, the villagers of Kirkinca carried all the weapons and explosive materials to the village pacing the roads of Ephesus. It was then that they felt independent. Hunchbacks immediately became straight.

On May 15, 1919 the Greek army occupying İzmir was welcomed with excitement in the village of Kirkica. Identifying themselves as Greek, the young people of Kirkica, Urla, Bornova and Kusadasi volunteered to join the independent regiments headed by Greek officers. The Sevr Agreement signed on 10 August 1920 encouraged these young people with the hope to share the eastern Anatolia with the allies.However, the success of the Great Assault ending the Turkish Independence War, and the rescuing of İzmir from the Greek occupation on 9 September 1922, caused the Byzantine Greek villagers of the region to migrate to Greece. Kirkica then turned into a deserted village like the others, with a few elderly inhabitants left behind.
In 1924, a Population Exchange Agreement was signed between Turkish and Greek governments. Thus,the post-war Kirkica was revitalized with Turkish newcomers from Salonika, Kavala and Provusta. The words of Kazim Dirik Pasha, the governor of İzmir at the time, about the name of the village are still quoted in the region. During the first years of the Turkish Republic, he visited the village and suggested changing its name from Cirkince -meaning rather ugly- to Sirince meaning charming, saying such a nice place should not be called ugly, but could only be called pretty.

Natural environment
Sirince stands at the end of the valley which goes along the Çirkince mountain-pass from Selçuk to the east. The river flowing in the valley was called Klasseas in antiquity. The mountains in the north are called Elemen. Selahattin Mountain is the current name given to the hills stretching to the east. Beylik Hill, 508 meters in height, is to the west of Şirince, overlooking the sea and the Selcuk plain.
The hills around Sirince are covered with pine trees and on the rocky cliffs with scrub. Marshmallows with violet flowers are the most striking plants on the climb to Şirince. The town is surrounded by olive groves, tangerine and fig gardens, and vineyards.

source: www.boutiquehotelsofturkey.com

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izimbozada — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:07:01 +0000

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