Buca
General Information
District: Izmir, State: Aegean Region, Turkey
Area: 180 km²
Languages Spoken: Turkish
Long Distance Code: (+90) 0232
Best Time to Visit: May to August
International Access: Izmir Adnan Menderes International Airport (ADB)Description
Buca is one of the main districts of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. Buca was one of the preferred settlement areas of İzmir's community of Levantines. The great mansions they built in the 19th century stand to this day, most of them restored. Buca started to develop as of the end of the 17th century when the French consulate in İzmir moved there following the 1676 plague and the 1688 earthquake that seriously shook İzmir's core as an international trade center. Its rich Levantine residents who acquired the surrounding vineyards typically had Latin backgrounds, as opposed to those who originally came from Britain and who preferred Bornova. But in the case both of Bornova and of Buca, the concentration in terms of ethnic backgrounds was far from having an exclusive nature. Many of the 19th century houses have been restored and are still being used either by public institutions or by private persons, although many still need care. There is a Catholic and a Baptist church in service. The core area of Buca could preserve its traditional architectural tissue based on cosy two-storey residences, while apartment blocks mushroomed in its extensions, as it is the case in all localities in Turkey which had to absorb immigration. There are a number of beautiful municipal parks, notably a vast ongoing project that comprises seven artificial lakes. Dokuz Eylül University, one of the two larger universities in İzmir, has its newly-built main campus located in Buca, in the locality called Tinaztepe. While the university has dependencies scattered all over İzmir, it is largely associated with Buca, in the same way as the other large university, Ege University, is associated with Bornova. The hippodrome of İzmir is located in Buca, in the quarter named Sirinyer along the road to İzmir metropolitan center, and the hippodrome is known under the name of this quarter (as Sirinyer Hipodromu). Sirinyer area used to be called Kizilcullu, in reference to a legend according to which Tamerlane would have established his headquarters here during his 1402 siege of İzmir ("Kizilcullu" meaning "red horseclothes"), and Buca's Levantine population, who owned orchards and vineyards here, had named the area under the no less assumptive name of Paradiso. Cevik Bir, the retired Turkish general who was the force commander of during the United Nations' Operation Restore Hope in Somalia and an influential figure in Turkey's politics and diplomacy in the 1990s, is from Buca and a public square is named after him.Location
Buca is a district of İzmir Province of Turkey. The district center is situated slightly inland like the district of Bornova with which it shares important points in common, and on the higher ground that commands the southern shores of the tip of the Gulf of İzmir.Climate
İzmir has a typical Mediterranean climate which is characterized by long, hot and dry summers; and mild to cool, rainy winters. The total precipitation for İzmir averages 706 mm (27.8 inches) per year; however, 77% of that falls during November through Ma