The first settled people of Şile were Greeks, and the town's name is held to come from the Milesians and from their attachment to beauty and to nature. The Milesians are known to have named their towns after the natural features around them, and it is accepted that when these first settlers saw the purple flowers colouring the hills and scenting the air, they named the place after them — marjoram, in their own language.
The settlement has gone under a long list of names: Philee, Shila, Aschil, Artena, Kilio, Kalpe. Signs of life here reach back into very early periods.
The caves explain why. Specialists working in and around Şile read the district's many caves as well suited to human settlement, particularly in the earliest ages. Tools of worked flint found in the stream beds show that the district's history goes back to the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, and the research establishes that people have lived here since the Neolithic.
The town today is known for something quite different: its beaches on the Black Sea, its lighthouse and the open-weave cotton cloth that carries its name. Those, and the district's coves and forests, each have their own page below.
