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According to legend, Alexander the Great, after hunting on the slopes of Mt. Pagos (Kadifekale), went to sleep in the shadow of a plane tree. The double Nemesis, tutelary divinity of Smyrna, appeared to him in a dream
(as on this coin of Smyrna) and instructed him to refound the city on that spot, where the temple of Nemesis was later built, probably south of the Agora. A rival of Ephesos, Smyrna was the most beautiful city of Ionia according to the geographer Strabo. The Agora, the economic and political heart of the city, was centrally located at the foot of the acropolis just above the ancient harbor, which has been filled in and is now the Bazar (Kemeraltı).
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