Balıkesir is a county of Turkey and the 17th most populated city of the country. While a part of it is located in the South Marmara Region, the other part is located in the Aegean Region and the city has a border to two seas; the Aegean and Marmara seas. It’s one of the 6 counties being neighbour of the two seas at the same time. It’s located in Northwest Anatolia. Its neighbour counties are Bursa and Kütahya in the east, Manisa and İzmir in the south and Çanakkale in the north. It’s also a neighbour of Lesbos Island of Greece in its province called Ayvalık.

Its name comes from its central province witch is separated in two parts today. Its former name was Karesi and it was changed in 1926 as Balıkesir. There are different stories about the history of this name. It’s said that the Roman Emperor Hadrianus used to go for a hunt around Balıkesir. Then he got a tower built here and this tower was named as Paleo Kastro. It’s believed that the name Balıkesir comes from that name. Paleo Kastro means the old fort. The other story says that the name comes from the Persian commander Balı-Kisra raiding the area.

The research made in Balıkesir showed that the first settlements in the city date back to 8000-3000 BC. In İnboğazı caves located 8 kilometres away from Havran, ruins of Paleolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic times were found. It was also a part of Anatolian Seljuks and the Ottoman Empire.

-- Siyah-beyaz ve renklendirilmiş yüksek çözünürlüklü eski Balıkesir fotoğrafları ile şehrin tarihinde kısa bir yolculuğa çıkacaksınız. 1900'lü yıllardan 1980'li yıllara en nostaljik görüntüler.--

--Eski zamanların en geniş tarih ve nostalji arşivi için kanalımızı takip edebilirsiniz.--