Kuşadası is associated mainly with cruise ships. Kuşadası is the port of entry into Turkey for tourists wanting to see the magnificent ruins at Ephesus, an ancient city mostly from the 2^nd century AD, although the area has been populated for thousands of years. Pronounced KUSH-AH-DAS-UH, the name means “Island of the Birds”. While it is not on an island, there are plenty of birds. There are as many reasons for the name as people you ask. This is not a language article, nor a travel article, but just let me note here that Kuşadası, with a population of around 30,000 people (around 2,000 of whom are foreigners), is holding its own with foreign investment.

The look of the city as you approach it is that of any other over-built Western city:  shopping centers, malls, huge hotels and apartment blocks. Between Kuşadası and Selçuk, where the ruins are actually located, there are huge, all-inclusive resort hotels, on large plantation-sized grounds, and each aiming for a tourist niche – the family (water parks on-site), the elite (huge balconies for every room, marble terraces and pool decks over-hanging the Aegean), etc. While the owners of these hotels are largely Turkish companies, the companies themselves operate with a considerable amount of foreign direct investment (FDI).

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