City Detail

Ayvalık (Turkish: [ˈajvaɫɯk]) is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. It is a district of Balıkesir province. The town centre is connected to Cunda Island by a causeway and is surrounded by the archipelago of Ayvalık Islands, which face the nearby Greek island of Lesbos Ayvalık ('Quince Orchard') was an ancient Aeolian Greek port-town, called Kydonies (Greek: Κυδωνίες). Its name was changed to Ayvalık in the Ottoman era. Before 1923 the town was predominantly Greek, and although the Turks used its Turkish name, the Greeks used both the old name Kydonies and the new one Hellenised to Aivali (Αϊβαλί). The Greeks knew Cunda Island as Moschonisia (literally "The Perfumed Islands") while the Turks called it Alibey Island (Alibey Adası). Under the Ottomans Ayvalık had a flourishing olive-oil-production industry and the chimneys of the old factories can still be seen about town.