Aydın Province (Turkish: Aydın ili) is a province and metropolitan municipality of southwestern Turkey, located in the Aegean Region. Its area is 8,116 km2,[2] and its population is 1,148,241 (2022).[1] The provincial capital is the city of Aydın. Other towns in the province include the summer seaside resorts of Didim and Kuşadası.
Neighboring provinces are Manisa to the north east, İzmir to the north, Denizli to the east, Muğla to the south.
The central and western parts of the province are fertile plains watered by the largest river in the Aegean region the Büyük Menderes River, with the Aydın Mountains to the north and the Menteşe Mountains to the south. The western end of the province is the Aegean coast with Lake Bafa a major feature of the Menderes delta area. The climate is typical of the Aegean region, very hot in summer. The Germencik region contains a number of hot springs.
Aydın is Turkey's leading producer of figs[citation needed] and exports dried figs worldwide. The very name by which the fruit was called in the world markets was "Smyrna figs" until recently, due to the preponderance of figs exported from İzmir over other species of the genus. But İzmir got the name by being the center for the wholesale trade and exports, while in fact the fruit was traditionally cultivated in Aydın. The term used within Turkey is『Aydın figs』(Turkish: Aydın inciri). Turkey's yearly production of roughly 50,000 tons of dried figs, is almost all from Aydın,[3] Within Aydın province, the best figs are reputed to be grown in Germencik. Aydın produces olives from the varieties of Memecik, Manzanilla, and Gemlik,[4] as well as chestnuts, cotton, citrus fruits, water melons and other fruits.
Orange and tangerine cultivation has increased in Aydın in recent years.[5]
The city of Aydın has a number of antique ruins and Ottoman period mosques. The province's countryside and scenery include a stretch of the Aegean coast and a number of historic sites including:
Didim coastal resort with large temple of Apollo and nearby
Aydın is the home of the Zeybek folk art. This involves a special type of war dance which is performed in a ring to resemble birds. The Zeybek is performed to sounds of the Kiteli and other Turkish folk instruments.
The folk songs of Aydın are famously short, indeed a popular saying in the Aegean region to get someone to stop talking, is Keep it short, make it an Aydın tune.[6]
The cuisine features the typical Turkish pastries, köfte and kebab.
İzmir to Aydın motorway, Motorway O-31, was built in the 1990s and is the city's main thoroughfare. An extension of this motorway to Denizli is currently under construction, with longer-term plans to extend it to Antalya.
^US Department of Agriculture briefing report on world fig production For comparison, the world's second and the third largest producers of dried figs, namely Greece and California, each produce around 12,500 tons per year. Since Aydın dominates the Turkish market in figs, the province also soars over these two producers by almost fourfold.
