In antiquity Çeşme was called Cyssus. Its modern name is thought to come from the fountains — çeşme in Turkish — where sailors took on water, and that is fitting: drinking water and the harbour are the two things the town has always been known for.
The great ancient city of this peninsula was Erythrai, which had a thoroughly sheltered harbour of its own. It is known to have traded with Egypt, Cyprus and the countries to the west, and to have built its wealth on that trade.
Çeşme today is one of the country's main centres of tourism, and the peninsula holds more than one kind of it: the beaches and surf schools at Alaçatı and Ilıca, the thermal springs, and the villages inland.
The castle above the harbour, the caravanserai beside it, the ancient city of Erythrai at Ildırı and the stone houses of Alaçatı each have their own page below.
