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The Aegean coast is, in many ways, Turkey's most enticing destination for visitors, home to some of the best of its classical antiquities and the most appealing resorts. The north shore is a quiet, rocky region, well endowed with Hellenistic remains but with few sandy beaches - and so is spared the tourist excesses of the south. Tiny Assos with its ancient ruins is one of the gems of the coast. Ayvalik , the north's longest-established resort, makes an excellent place to stop for a few days, with good beaches and easy access to Bergama a little inland, with its unmissable ruins. Further south, the city of Izmir is for most travellers an obstacle on the way to more compelling destinations, but it is not without charm and serves as a base for day-trips to adjacent sights and beaches. The territory to the south is home to the best concentration of classical, Hellenistic and Roman ruins, notably Ephesus , usually first on everyone's list of dutiful pilgrimages, and the remains inland at Aphrodisias and Hierapolis - although the latter is more often visited for the pools and rock formations of adjacent Pamukkale . The coast itself is better down here, too, and although the larger resorts, including Kusadasi and Marmaris, are beginning to be lost to the developers, Bodrum and Cesme still have a certain amount of charm.
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