Cunda and Ayvalik

Aegean Stone Towns Built By Ottoman Greeks And Repopulated By Cretan Muslims After The 1923 Population Exchange; On The UNESCO Tentative List · Ayvalik, Balikesir

Ayvalik and Cunda were Greek towns. Olive oil made them rich, the houses and the churches are Greek-built in local stone, and in 1923 the population exchange emptied them and refilled them with Muslims from Crete and Lesbos - who arrived speaking Greek, cooking Cretan food and, in many families, still doing both a century later. That is the thing that makes these two places different from every other Aegean town in Turkiye: the churches that became mosques with their bell towers still standing, the olive-oil factories now hotels and galleries, and a food culture with one foot on another island. Cunda, properly Alibey Island, is joined to the mainland by a causeway and has the prettier lanes, the restored Taksiyarhis church and a quay of fish restaurants. Ayvalik has the working town, the market and the boats. Istanbul weekenders have discovered both, which shows in the prices at weekends.

Cunda (Alibey Adasi), Ayvalik, Balikesir, Ayvalik, Balikesir, Turkiye

Both towns are lived in and open at all hours. The Taksiyarhis Memorial Museum on Cunda and the Ayvalik museums keep daytime hours with a weekly closing day. Restaurants and guesthouses run year round with a heavy summer and weekend peak, and a share closes from November to March. Boats to the islands run from about May to October.

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