Ayvalık: Olive-Oil Town on the Northern Aegean

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1. What is Ayvalık?
2. How do you get to Ayvalık?
3. When is the best time to visit Ayvalık?
4. What is the history of Ayvalık?
5. What is Ayvalık famous for?
6. What can you see at Ayvalık?
7. Frequently asked questions about Ayvalık
8. What do the official records say about Ayvalık?

What is Ayvalık?

Ayvalık is a town on the northern Aegean coast of Balıkesir province, built on a slope above a bay sheltered by the Ayvalık Islands. Its old quarters are a grid of stone houses with shuttered windows, former Greek Orthodox churches turned into mosques or museums, and brick chimneys of 19th-century olive-oil factories, some now hotels and restaurants.

Until 1923 Ayvalık was a largely Greek town, known in Greek as Kydonies. After the population exchange it was resettled by Muslims from Greece, especially Crete and Lesbos, and that mix still shapes its cooking, music and architecture. Today it is one of the most popular summer towns on the northern Aegean, with the beaches of Sarımsaklı to the south and Cunda Island across the causeway.

How do you get to Ayvalık?

The nearest airport is Balıkesir Koca Seyit Airport (EDO), south of Edremit, with flights from Istanbul and Ankara; Ayvalık is within an hour by road.

Ayvalık lies on the coastal road between Çanakkale and İzmir, and intercity coaches stop at its bus station on the edge of town. From Balıkesir city, regular buses run west via Edremit. In summer, ferries cross daily to Mytilene on Lesbos, with fewer sailings in winter; a passport is needed, and a Schengen visa for nationalities that require one.

Within town, the old quarters are best walked. Local buses and ferries run to Cunda, and buses run south to Sarımsaklı and Şeytan Sofrası.

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When is the best time to visit Ayvalık?

June and September are ideal: warm sea, open beach clubs and fewer people than in July and August, when Turkish holidaymakers fill the town and Cunda. May and October are good for walking the old streets and taking boat trips around the islands without the heat. Winter is quiet but has its own appeal: late autumn and winter are the olive harvest, and the presses are working.

What is the history of Ayvalık?

Ayvalık’s Greek name, Kydonies, and its Turkish one, meaning “place of quinces”, both refer to quince orchards. The town’s rise came in the late 18th century. After the Ottoman navy was destroyed at Çeşme in 1770, the grand vizier Hasan Pasha granted the Greeks of Ayvalık virtual self-government in 1773, and the town grew into a prosperous centre of the olive-oil and soap trade and a cultural centre for the Greek community until the early 20th century.

Greek forces occupied Ayvalık on 29 May 1919, the date the 2002 inventory records as the first shot fired against the enemy in the National Struggle at Ayvalık. Turkish forces retook the town on 15 September 1922. Under the 1923 agreement between Greece and Türkiye, the Orthodox population left and Muslims from Greece took their place. Many churches became mosques: the Saatli Cami (Clock Mosque) was once the church of Agios Ioannis. The inventory also lists 13 April, the anniversary of Atatürk’s visit, among Ayvalık’s commemorations.

The olive trade continued in Turkish hands through the 20th century. The stone factories, mills and warehouses it left behind were added to UNESCO’s Tentative List in 2017 as the Ayvalık Industrial Landscape.

What is Ayvalık famous for?

• Olive oil. The surrounding hills hold millions of olive trees, and the area is one of Türkiye’s largest olive producers. Production now runs at a smaller, often boutique scale.
• Stone houses and factory chimneys from the 19th-century oil boom.
• Former churches, including the Taksiyarhis Church, now a museum.
• Sunsets at Şeytan Sofrası over the islands.
• Food: Cretan-style olive-oil dishes, seafood and the Ayvalık tostu.

What can you see at Ayvalık?

Taksiyarhis Church Monument Museum. Built in 1847, the Church of the Archangels was restored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and opened as a monument museum in 2013. The provincial directorate highlights its marble work, ceiling paintings of religious scenes, murals of the life of Christ and icons of saints painted on fish skin. It stands in the first neighbourhood of Ayvalık where Christians and Muslims lived side by side, among neoclassical houses (Balıkesir Culture and Tourism Directorate).

The old quarters. Walk from the harbour uphill through the lanes around the Taksiyarhis Church and the Saatli Cami. Many houses keep their carved stone door frames, and the factory buildings near the shore are easy to spot by their chimneys.

Şeytan Sofrası. A headland south of town with a wide view over the Ayvalık Islands and Lesbos. It is the classic place to watch the sun set.

Sarımsaklı and Altınova. Long sandy beaches south and north of town, lined with hotels.

The islands. Day boats leave the harbour for swimming stops around the archipelago. According to the inventory, 17,950 hectares of the islands and surrounding sea were set aside as a nature park in 1995.

Cunda. Across the causeway, with a second Taksiyarhis church, now a museum, and harbour restaurants. See our Cunda Island guide.

Frequently asked questions about Ayvalık

What do the official records say about Ayvalık?

The Ayvalık Islands, within the borders of Balıkesir province, can be reached both by sea and by road. Coming by road to Ayvalık district, a road link connects the town with Alibey Island, the largest of the Ayvalık Islands.

The Ayvalık Islands are geomorphological units formed when the hills of the Aegean basin, which sank as a result of tectonic movements in the Pleistocene, remained above the water. The extensions of old mountains played a large part in how the islands are distributed. This way of forming is reflected in the undersea topography and has created rare natural landscapes beneath the sea. Because of the islands’ geology, some are bare of vegetation and others have only sparse plant cover. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Balıkesir Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)