Güzelhisar

Güzelhisar lies on the northern side of the fertile Büyük Menderes valley, below the hills of western Anatolia. Its name, “beautiful fortress”, became attached to the town under Turkish rule. To distinguish it from another Güzelhisar farther north, Ottoman sources called it Güzelhisar of Aydın. The surrounding plain linked the town with the river and the routes toward the Aegean coast.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Güzelhisar formed one of the districts of the extensive Aydın sancak, alongside Birgi, Tire and other towns. It grew as an Ottoman centre serving its agricultural hinterland. Markets and religious foundations brought together the produce of the valley and the people who travelled through it, while the name of the former Aydınid principality remained attached to the wider district.