The Izmir region has included urban areas for almost 3,500 years, and the ancient core of the city was originally known as Smyrna. Due to its location on the Gulf of Izmir (lower left) and its access to the Aegean Sea, Izmir has been an important Mediterranean Sea port for most of its history.

Today, the metropolitan area includes eleven districts, many of which were independent neighborhoods prior to agglomeration into “greater Izmir.” Densely built residential and commercial districts, characterized by gray to reddish gray rooftops, occupy much of the center of the image. Larger structures with bright white rooftops are indicative of commercial/industrial areas near the port (image left).

Two large sport complexes, the Atatürk Stadium and Sirinyer Hippodrome (horse racing track) are visible at image upper left and image right. Numerous vegetated parks (green) are located throughout the area.

Astronaut photograph was acquired on May 16, 2011, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera using an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 27 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by William L. Stefanov, NASA-JSC.