The Alternative Access
This cute and small village was first named by The Anatolian Greeks as “Cirkince” (Ugly) so that no one would come to the village but later then it was named as Sirince(Cutie) by the order of the governor of İzmir after his visit to the village in 1924. You can reach this beautiful and serene village on a winding but well built road from Selçuk, İzmir. The road from Selçuk is the frequently used one, but if you prefer to go to Sirince on a much more adventurous road by following the “Sirince” signs in Ortaklar, a more curvy and narrow but much more enjoyable road will take you to Şirince. It is a way that will make you feel in the Black Sea, but be really careful if you use this road because it is really narrow.
While Sirince already has been flooded by many tourists for years due to its proximity to the Virgin Mary, Ephesus and Kusadasi, thanks to the the apocalyptic stories about the village its popularity had increased so much that it could sometimes be difficult to walk on the narrow streets of the village, particularly around 2012.
With its stone mansions, wooden houses, streets that take you on a historical journey, cafes where you can have Turkish breakfast, wine houses and cellars where you can taste all kinds of wine, Sirince is a must-see but actually it seems like a virtual village with its installations. In fact, most of the wines offered can also be considered virtual because most fruit wines are not made from real fruits unfotunatelly they only have the aroma of them. When you dive into the narrow alleys from the center bazaar of the village you encounter the locals living in the village but the center seems to be mainly established to hunt tourists, the natural atmosphere in Bursa Cumalıkızık is not much left here.
Şirince is a village where you will get enough of seeing historical houses and they are all more beautiful than each other…
Despite all if you are around İzmir especially near Selcuk and want to see a somewhat different place, we are sure that Sirince will offer a nice day for you with its quite and old style.
While the population of the village was more than 700 households for a period, it decreased considerably during the years of the War of Independence and after the population exchange in 1924, Turkish people from the Balkans were settled here. Of course, the important points of the village started to change after these dates, such as the conversion of churches into mosques. The foundation of the village is alleged to reach back to 500 BC. and it is claimed that 40 rebellions, who gave the village its name lived in this period.
St John and St Dimitrios Churches
Both churches used as mosques after the population exchange were built in the period of Greeks villagers and now they are mostly used for exhibition purposes. Almost every time we’ve been there was an exhibition in both churches. One of the features of the church of St. John is the cellar of the church that descends through a steep staircase, and it has a cool, dim and magical environment, which is a must-see place while you are in Sirince. And of course, the pool with the statue of the Virgin Mary aside which functions just like a coin machine in the garden of the same church… There is quite a large hole below the pool and it is believed that your wish will be accepted if the coin you throw go through that hole and of course the bottom of the pool is covered with coins.
The Mayans and the Apocalypse
Some groups, who think that the doomsday will break because of the end of the Mayan calendar of the Central American civilizations on December 21 2012, claimed that only two towns in the world will survive this apocalyptic scenario, and one of these town is Bugarach in France and the other is our Sirince and of course this news was like a lottery for Şirince. Many journalists from different countries flocked to Şirince, but the number of tourists did not exceed the number of journalists in fact. You could even see the news saying “Tom Cruise runs away to Sirince”. Of course, most tradesmen have benefited from these news, although the occupancy rate of the hotels has increased quite a lot thanks to the journalists, it wasnt as much as expected.
If you look at the news of that period, you can see that the tradesmen arranged their menus according to December 21, adding dishes such as Heaven Kebab, Doomsday Soup, Last Ladle Soup, Forbidden Apple Dessert.
The Stone School
The stone school, on the other hand, is interestingly both a restaurant and a museum where educational tools and documents from the Tanzimat period to the Republic of Turkey are exhibited, and especially the information and objects related to quarantine practices in the exchange period, and as the name implies, the Greeks used it as a school. As you see every square meter of the village is being converted into money.
One of the most beautiful features of Sirince is that most of the houses do not cover the others’ views, as in many settlements in Anatolia. This type of construction has also made the appearance of the village quite aesthetic.
The Mathematics Village and The School of Theater
Ali NESİN is an important name with contributions to mathematics and mathematics education in Turkey and of course he is also the son of Aziz NESIN. Many seminars, courses and panels that everyone can attend according to their levels are organized in the Mathematics Village throughout the year, which Ali NESİN and Sevan NİŞANYAN established. Even teachers who want to teach with the magic of that environment can make an appointment and tgive their lessons there.
And the School of Theater emerged as an idea of Sevan NİŞANYAN years ago and since then it serves like the Mathematics Village. It opens its doors to artists for various panels, speeches, seminars and many shows related to theater and art. Both places can be visited if there isn’t an active panel or study. But bue to the pandemic in 2020, it closed its doors to outside visitors. Sevan Nişanyan, by the way, is an interesting person and we talked about it a little bit in our vlog. Especially his books on etymology contain interesting informations, they are highly recommended.
Let’s get to some of the negative sides of Sirince. Once you enter the village, you start pouring money, immediately after parking your car. Another negativity of the village is that the bazaar is completely surrounded by shops for tourists, that is, you have almost no chance to see an original workplace belonging to the village and you cannot even see the village houses properly because of the shop tents. Even in the St. John’s garden were a few shops. By the way, we were told that most of the products that are said to be made in the village were actually brought from outside, but the herbs which are sold by the villagers most probably may have been collected from the environment. Also, the continuous efforts of the tradesmen to sell something can sometimes bore you but they are really friendly and helpful.
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