History of Erdek (Artake)

Erdek was known in antiquity as Artake. Based on this name, it is sometimes suggested that the town was founded by the Scythians (Saka); however, Erdek’s history reaches back to around 5400 BCE. Artake is also remembered as one of the legendary Scythian kings.

The island lying off Erdek’s coast—today called Zeytinlik Island (Zeytinli Ada)—was once known as Artake as well. The ancient settlement on the hill opposite the island carried the same name.

Although the word Artake is believed to derive from the Luwian language, which was widespread around 2000 BCE, its meaning is unknown. There is also no clear information on when or by whom Artake was founded. In the 8th century BCE, migrants from Miletos seized the area and Hellenized it.

Stephanos of Byzantium reports that an ancient writer named Timosthenes described Artaka as the name of a mountain and the small island in front of it in Kyzikos (Cyzicus). Pliny also mentions the island under the name Artacaeon. Beyond these references, there is little definitive information about Artake.

The Persian fleet, sent to punish the cities that joined the West Anatolian uprising led by Miletos, devastated Artake as it did many other coastal towns—looting, burning, and destroying it. The survivors fled to the area of present-day Erdek and settled there. In the Middle Ages, Artake briefly attempted to re-emerge as a lively town, but it always remained dependent on nearby Kyzikos. Due to repeated fires and earthquakes, no visible ruins from Artake have survived to the present.

The first historian to mention Artake was Herodotus. Artake was colonized by the Milesians in the early 7th century BCE, and before 361 BCE it fell under the rule of Kyzikos together with the entire Kapıdağ Peninsula. Throughout the Hellenistic era, Artake gradually lost importance beside the flourishing Kyzikos, and in the Roman period it became effectively an outer district of that city. With the decline of Kyzikos in the Byzantine era—its harbors neglected, buildings ruined by earthquakes, and their stones plundered—Artake began to grow again, yet never matched Kyzikos in fame. Herodotus praises the region’s economic life, especially its grapes, wine, olives, and olive oil.

In 1339, Artake was conquered by Süleyman Paşa, the son of Orhan Gazi, and came under Turkish rule.

The Ottoman-period character of Erdek is described most vividly in Evliya Çelebi’s “Seyahatname” (Book of Travels). Visiting Erdek twice in 1639, Evliya notes its two-storey wooden houses, inns, baths, and mosques, as well as its vineyards covering about 25,000 dönüms, Muscat grapes, and nine varieties of wine. He also recounts an intriguing story about the small Zeytinlik Island in Erdek harbor.

“Off the western shore of Erdek, about a mile out to sea, there is a hot spring no larger than a dining table. People cannot endure entering it, so they bathe where it mixes with the sea. When these two divine waters unite, those who bathe there feel as if they have found eternal life, satisfied and in robust health.”

According to the Ottoman census of 1891, Erdek had a population of 33,007. The vast majority—about 89% (29,165 people)—were Greeks (Rum), while the Turkish population numbered 3,070 (around 9%). In the town center, approximately 91% of residents were Christians.

Erdek was attached to the Karesi Sanjak in 1807. Until the end of the 19th century it remained a district of this sanjak (at the time Bandırma was a township of Erdek). Later, until the 1930s, Erdek became a township of Bandırma, after which it was established as its own district center. The population, around 10,000 in 1980, reached 20,000 by 2000.

After the 1924 Population Exchange, the areas vacated by Greeks in Erdek and its villages were resettled by Muslim immigrants from Karacaova (Karacaabat) near Thessaloniki, Pomaks from Kavala, as well as Cretan and Bosniak communities.