Later the port was a haven for pirates.
As Byzantine, Venetian and Genoese shippers began to trade along the coast the port was re-founded (as ScalaNuova or Scala Nova - "new port"), a garrison was placed on the island, and the town centre moved from the hillside to the coast.
The Turkish era
From 1086 the area came under Turkish control and the Aegean ports became the final destination of caravan routes to the Orient. However this arrangement was overthrown by the Crusades and the coast again came under Byzantine control until 1280 when first the Menteşe and then the AydinidAnatolianbeyliks took control. Kuşadası was brought into the Ottoman Empire by Mehmet I in 1413. The Ottomans built the city walls and thecaravanserai that still stand today.
In 1834 the castle and garrison on the island was rebuilt and expanded, becoming the focus of the town, to the extent that people began to refer to the whole town as Kuşadası (bird island). However in the 19th century, trade declined in favor of İzmirwith the opening of the İzmir-Selçuk-Aydın railway, as Kuşadası had no rail connection.
During the Turkish War of Independence Kuşadası was occupied from 1919-1922 first by Italian (till 1921), then by Greek troops. The Turkish troops won control of the city on September 7, 1922.
Under the Turkish Republic the Greek population was exchanged for Turkish people as part of thePopulation exchange between Greece and Turkeyin 1922. It was a district in Izmir Province until 1954 and become the district of Aydın Province. Until the first holiday apartments were built here in the 1970s Kuşadası was a fruit-growing rural district, it then grew into a small resort town with holiday flats. These were built as housing co-operatives, membership sold to families in Ankara, Izmir, Denizli and other Turkish cities. From the mid 1980sKuşadası grew again into the centre of mass tourism that we have today.
In 2005,
