Menemen

Menemen () is a municipality and district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 573 km2, and its population is 200,904 (2022). The district extends on a fertile plain formed by the alluvial soil carried by the Gediz River. Adjacent districts are, from east to west; Aliağa and Foça to the north and Bornova, Karşıyaka and Çiğli to the south. Menemen district has a long coastline in the west and neighbors Manisa Province to the east. The town of Menemen is located at a distance of from İzmir center (Konak Square). Settlement across the district is loosely scattered along the Greater Metropolitan Area of İzmir in the south and consists of isolated villages along prairies in the north, which results in an average urbanization rate of only 42 per cent. The economy still relies on agriculture and stock breeding in large part, although the production and export of leather, ceramic and other earthenware products, as well as potentially of plastic products, based in two separate and specialized organized industrial zones made important steps forward during the last decade. Menemen's earthenware pottery products have been famous across Turkey for centuries. These two organized industrial zones as well as activities rebounding from the adjacent İzmir metropolitan area gain an increasing importance in the district's economy. Nevertheless, Gediz River, whose lower basin crosses Menemen plain to join the sea within the district boundaries still constitutes the lifeline of the region and matters relating to the river's flow as well as its present rate of rather high pollution is a matter of constant debate.

==Etymology== There are different accounts related to the historical origin of the Greek-derived name of "Menemen" (Μενεμένη or Μαινεμένη in Greek language). The most commonly encountered explanation is based on the ancient Greek word mainómenos (μαινόμενος "furious, raving, out of one's mind"), which refers to a Greek Mythology story when Herakles went out of his mind for which Euripides wrote the play "Herakles Mainomenos" (). In addition, "meneménos" (μενεμένος) meant "flood" or "overflow". In the absence of modern dams and other means of waterflow control in antiquity, the Hermos River (now Gediz River) used to cause serious and frequent damage in the valley until recent times. The river was nicknamed in Turkish "Gediz the Sorceress" (Cadı Gediz).