Alsancak

Alsancak is a centrally situated large quarter (or a zone; semt in Turkish) in İzmir, Turkey, within the boundaries of the metropolitan district of Konak, the historic center of the city.

As a notional zone, Alsancak extends from along the tip of the southern shores of the Gulf of İzmir, starting near İzmir's historic square that carries the same name as the district (Konak Square) with the 19th century-built Pasaport Quai marking the point, and extending along a 3200-meter-long seaside street and promenade called "Kordon" (esplanade, or more specifically as Birinci Kordon, Turkish: Birinci Kordon) and to join the neighboring metropolitan district of Bornova, located eastwards and at the very end of the Gulf's waters.

Within this larger and notional zone of Alsancak, aside from the officially instituted and delimited quarter (mahalle) of Alsancak proper, the five neighboring quarters of Umurbey, Kültür, Mimar Sinan, İsmet Kaptan and Akdeniz are found along the shore, and the whole is generally referred to as being part of the same complex.

In Ottoman times, the area was named "Punta" (a Greek word coming from the word "ponte" meaning in Italian "the point"; the name cited as La Pointe in French sources or in sources that borrow from them) and was the part of the city where the upper middle class (mainly Italians and some Greeks), was concentrated.