Editing Manisa (section)

{{Short description|Metropolitan municipality in Manisa Province, Aegean Region, Turkey}}
{{essay-like|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox settlement
<!-- See Template:Infobox settlement for additional fields and descriptions -->| name                            = Manisa
| settlement_type                 = [[Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey|Metropolitan municipality]]
| image_skyline                   = MANİSa.jpg
| image_caption                   = Aerial view of Manisa
| image_shield                    = 
| pushpin_map                     = Turkey #Europe
| pushpin_relief                  = 1
| coordinates                     = {{coord|38|36|52|N|27|25|45|E|display=inline,title}}
| subdivision_type                = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
| subdivision_name                = {{TUR}}
| subdivision_type1               = [[Provinces of Turkey|Province]]
| subdivision_name1               = [[Manisa Province|Manisa]]
| subdivision_type2               = 
| subdivision_name2               = 
| timezone                        = [[Time in Turkey|TRT]]
| utc_offset                      = +3
| leader_party                    = [[Republican People's Party|CHP]]
| leader_title                    = Mayor
| leader_name                     = Ferdi Zeyrek
| elevation_m                     = 71
| population_footnotes            = <ref name=citypop>{{cite web|url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/turkey/manisa/_/1885__manisa/|title=Manisa|website=citypopulation.de|access-date=26 January 2024}}</ref>
| population_urban                = 385452
| population_as_of                = 2022
| postal_code_type                = 
| postal_code                     = 
| seat_type                       = [[Capital town]]
| seat                            = 
| website                         = {{URL|www.manisa.bel.tr}}
| official_name                   = 
| image_blank_emblem              = Manisa city emblem.png
| blank_emblem_type               = Emblem of Manisa Metropolitan Municipality
}}
[[File:Taş_Fabrika.jpg|thumb|Stone Factory in Manisa]]
'''Manisa''' ({{IPA|tr|maˈnisa}}) is a city in Turkey's [[Aegean Region]] and the administrative seat of [[Manisa Province]], lying approximately 40&nbsp;km northeast of the major city of [[İzmir]]. The city forms the urban part of the districts [[Şehzadeler]] and [[Yunusemre]], with a population of 385,452 in 2022.<ref name=citypop/>

Modern Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port city and the regional metropolitan center of [[İzmir]] and by its fertile [[hinterland]] rich in quantity and variety of agricultural production. In fact, İzmir's proximity also adds a particular dimension to all aspects of life's pace in Manisa in the form of a dense traffic of daily commuters between the two cities, separated as they are by a half-hour drive served by a fine six-lane highway nevertheless requiring attention at all times due to its curves and the rapid ascent (sea-level to more than 500 meters at Sabuncubeli Pass) across [[Mount Sipylus]]'s mythic scenery.

The historic part of Manisa spreads out from a forested valley in the immediate slopes of Sipylus mountainside, along Çaybaşı Stream which flows next to [[Niobe]]'s "Weeping Rock" (''"Ağlayan Kaya"''), an ancient bridge called the "Red Bridge" (''"Kırmızı Köprü"'') as well as to several tombs-shrines in the Turkish style dating back to the Saruhan period (14th century). Under Ottoman rule in the centuries that followed, the city had already extended into the undulated terrain at the start of the plain. In the last couple of decades, Manisa's width more than tripled in size across its vast plain formed by the alluvial deposits of the River Gediz, a development in which the construction of new block apartments, [[industrial park|industrial zones]] and of [[Celal Bayar University]] campus played a key role.

The city of Manisa is also widely visited, especially during March and September festivals, the former festival being the continuation of a five-hundred-year-old "Mesir Paste Distribution" tradition, and also for the nearby Mount Spil [[national park]]. It is also a departure point for other visitor attractions of international acclaim which are located nearby within Manisa's depending region, such as [[Sardes]] and [[Alaşehir]] (ancient [[Philadelphia (Lydia)|Philadelphia]]) inland. The city also had a Jewish community.<ref>Avotaynu: the international review of Jewish genealogy, Volume 14, G. Mokotoff, 1998, [https://books.google.com/books?id=77RtAAAAMAAJ&q=Information+comes+from+the+Jewish+communities+of+Antakya+Bodrum+Bursa+Canakkale+Corlu+Edirne+Finike+Gelibolu+Iskendorun+Istanbul+İzmir+Kilis+Kirklarelli+Manisa+and+Tire+plus+a+few+scattered+stones+from+other+Gazi-Antep p. 40.]</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.sephardicstudies.org/manisa.html | title=Manisa (Magnasia), Jewish Community }}</ref>