On the way to becoming a city of culture, Alaşehir

The district of Alaşehir in Manisa, hosting one of the 7 churches mentioned in the Bible and being a settlement area since ancient times, contains many cultural riches within itself. Alaşehir Municipality, which continues its efforts to become a city of culture, is bringing cultural riches to the present day through excavation and restoration works in many parts of the city.

Alaşehir, which is famous for the seedless Sultana grape cultivation and despite not having a sea or a border gate, carries out fresh fruit and vegetable exports from the Customs Directorate in the district, draws attention not only with its economic success but also with its cultural riches. Hosting the Saint Jean Church, one of the 7 churches mentioned in the Bible, and built on the ancient city of Philadelphia, the district is advancing confidently towards becoming a tourism city. While many cultural values in the district are brought to the present day with the significant restoration works of Alaşehir Municipality, direction signs have been placed in many points for tourists to be able to explore the city comfortably. Tourists can explore the cultural values of the city by scanning the QR codes on the direction signs with their phones and access all information about that area in both English and Turkish. Alaşehir Municipality aims to transform the city into a smokeless industrial city by investing in order to place the city at an important point on the cultural roadmap.

The municipality enlivens tourism with its works
Alaşehir Mayor Ahmet Öküzcüoğlu, who stated that they have prepared a project for Alaşehir, which is home to many ancient structures, said, “Alaşehir is a district built on the ancient city of Philadelphia in the 150s BC. In addition, we have written a comprehensive project to the historical cities association in our tourism roadmap. This project includes the registration of monumental trees, the establishment of an archaeopark in the Toptepe region, transforming the Bakkal Şükrü House into a city museum, transforming our Alakent House into a museum where the Alaşehir Congress will be revived, as well as closing Alaşehir with tahini pita on the UNESCO Heritage List, and adding Alaşehir to the map of the Ministry of Tourism. After this roadmap, we wrote a project to the Union of Municipalities. Thanks to this project, we placed direction signs in Alaşehir district. Now, our tourists can explore the district by following those signs. We have informative panels in the places they visit. Those panels are QR coded, and when scanned with a phone, you can follow the history of that region in English and Turkish. We thank the Union of Municipalities and the Association of Historical Cities. We will also turn Kurşunlu Han into a place where tourists can buy and taste local products.”

“Geothermal tourism will revive”
The district also hosts important geothermal resources. Mayor Öküzcüoğlu, stating that they continue their efforts in this regard, said, “We have declared 3 regions that will revive geothermal tourism in the future. We also want to see geothermal tourism in Alaşehir. Alaşehir is an archaeopark. We present mosaics, underground tunnels, temples, amphitheater, Kurşunlu Han, Saint Jean Church, one of the 7 churches from a religious tourism perspective, and we offer paragliding. In the future, you will see Alaşehir in a different place in terms of tourism.”