In Bornova, now part of metropolitan İzmir, a low archaeological mound preserves evidence of a settlement that began about 8,500 years ago. Yeşilova Höyük is described by the municipality and the Turkish Ministry of Culture as İzmir’s oldest known settlement area. That wording matters: the site does not tell the whole story of the modern city, but it pushes the documented human history of its central plain back into the Neolithic period.
The mound lies in Karacaoğlan neighbourhood, amid the contemporary streets of Bornova. Archaeological descriptions place it in a prehistoric landscape that also includes the nearby Yassıtepe and İpeklikuyu mounds. The visitor centre gives travellers a way to encounter this ancient layer without leaving the city for a remote excavation. It is a reminder that İzmir’s urban growth sits above a much older settlement history, not apart from it.