Germencik

Germencik is a town and a district of Aydın Province in the Aegean region of Turkey.

Geography

Germencik is located in the middle of the fertile Büyük Menderes (Meander) plain, inland from the Aegean coastal town of Kuşadası, on the Aydın-İzmir highway 25 km (16 mi) from the city of Aydın. It is also the junction of the İzmir-Aydın-Afyonkarahisar and Ortaklar-Söke railway lines.

Until the 1950s the plain was a swampy area subject to regular flooding and Germencik grew as people moved from the wet lands into the town. Today Germencik itself is a small town of 12,000 people, astride the Izmir-Aydın highway, providing high schools, a hospital, a library and other services for the surrounding district. There are more health centres and primary schools in the villages of the district.

The economy of Germencik depends on agriculture, the main crops are figs and olives but cotton, sesame and other crops are also grown here. Of the 374.39 km² total area of Germencik 255.8 km² is planted and of the remainder 106.23 km² is forest, 6.65 km² is meadow/pasture, 5.19 km² is unused and 0.52 km² is lake or swamp. In 1998 16,950 tons of cotton were produced from 56.5 km², 7,500 tons of figs from 87.22 km² and 44,170 tons of olives from 92.92 km². Sheep and cattle are raised too and there is a small dairy industry as well as bee-keeping and some poultry farming.