Kadifekale

The Acropolis of the Hellenistic and Roman Period City. In 334 BC, the castle located on a hill at the foothills of Mount Pagos was built at the request of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian King who freed Anatolia from Persian rule. The name of Pogos mountain, which is today called Kadifekale, is given in ancient sources as Pagos, meaning ‘Hill’ in Greek. Following Alexander’s arrival in Anatolia and the end of Persian rule, the Hellenistic period begins in the region between 334-133 BC. According to legend; Alexander the Great, who came to İzmir, while hunting in the Nemesis Sanctuary at Kadifekale, then called “ Pagos Tepesi “ and covered with forest at that time, falls asleep for a while under a great plane tree, and the two Nemeses he sees in his dream ask Alexander to establish the new city of İzmir on the slopes of the hill where he slept, and when Alexander wakes up, he tells the Apollo oracle of Klaros about the dream he saw and asks his opinion, and the oracle interprets the dream in a single sentence: “ The people of İzmir who will settle on the slopes of Pagos Tepesi by the sacred Melez Çayı will be four times happier than before. “