İzmir is an ancient city (old smyrna) that was founded at a very early period at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Aided by its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, İzmir rose to prominence before the Classical Era. Its importance can be said to have remained practically uninterrupted to this day. Its initial location at the northeastern corner of the tip of the Gulf of izmir is commonly called “Old Smyrna”, and the city after the move to a new location on the slopes of Mount Pagos (Kadifekale today) at the time of Alexander the Great, constitute izmir proper. The heart of that new city, principally dating from the late Hellenistic and early Roman period, before a great earthquake in 178, forms the large area of Izmir Agora Open Air Museum today