In ancient times, Foça was called Phokaia. The name of Foça comes from the ancient name Phokaia, and the word Phokaia comes from “seal” (ancient Greek: Phoke). Phokaia is one of the 12 Ionian cities and is located in the Aiolis Region. There are a wide variety of opinions on its establishment. According to ancient authors, the Phokisians living in Central Greece founded Phokaia on the site of today's Foça with the permission of the city of Kyme (near Aliağa), which dominated the region under the rule of the Athenian commanders Phligones and Damos. According to ancient excavations, the first inhabitants of Phokaia were Aiols, I of the city.D.11.it was founded by the Aiols in the century I in the Ionian Phokaia.D. 9.it was concluded that they lived from the end of the century.

According to Pausanias, one of the ancient writers, Phokaia was founded by those who came from Theos and Erythrai. However, according to the excavations carried out in recent years, the oldest known history of Phokaia is the First Bronze Age, i.e..D. III.it turned out that he went up to a thousand. I of the indigenous people of the city, which was founded for the first time on the southern slopes of Foça.D. II.in the second half of the millennium, it became clear that they were in close relations with the Mycenaeans (Akhas from Yunaistan). I.D. 11.the indigenous people who fused with the Aiols who came to Phokaia in the century and the Ions who came later, I.D. 7.starting from the century, it showed a period of rapid rise. According to the ”Father of History" Herodotus, the Phokaians show great improvement in seafaring. The Phokaians, who use fast boats with 50 oars and the power to carry 500 passengers, are the first Hellenes to embark on a long sea voyage. They introduced the Adriatic, Etruria, Iberia and Tartessos to the Hellenic world.

I.D.7. in Iran, the “King's Road” that started from Susa in the century came all the way to Sardes, where it joined with a road coming from Kyme near Phokaia and Aliaga. According to the famous traveler Ramsay, there were also Sardes-Smyrna (Izmir) and Sardes-Ephesus (Ephesus) roads. Thus, Ephesus and Smyrna could be connected to the King's Road. Another road starting from Ephesus should have passed through Smyrna and reached Phokaia. The Hermos (Gediz) Valley was located between Ephesus, Smyrna, Phokaia and Sardes, and the commercial sovereignty of this valley belonged to Smyrna. Dec. I.D.7. the contribution of this road to the wealth of Smyrna, which experienced its golden age in the century, was great. I.D.after the destruction of Smyrna by the Lydian king Alyattes in the 600s, the commercial sovereignty of the Hermos (Gediz) Valley had fallen into the hands of Phokaia. This dominance is also evident with the enrichment of Phokaia coins.

Phokaia I.D.6. it experienced its golden age in the first half of the century. This is the golden age, I of the Persians.D. it ended with their capture of Sardes in 546. Like many Western Anatolian cities, Phokaia was destroyed and destroyed by the Persians. According to Herodotus, the Persian commander Harpagos had captured these cities by piling up earthen hillocks in front of the city walls. While Phokaia was being besieged and after it fell into the hands of the Persians, most of the Phokaians had migrated to their colonies in the Mediterranean. Later, some of them returned.

Phokaia is one of the cities that printed the first “electron coin” in Ionia. These coins had reached the Mediterranean and Egypt by sea trade. Cities that print electronic coins, I.D. 6. towards the end of the century, due to the fact that it was an expensive alloy, they gave up on it and switched to gold and silver coinage. I.D.4. until the end of the century, the cities that printed electronic coins were only Phokaia and Mytilene. On the back of most of the Phokaia coins, there is a griffon image. The griffon is a mixed creature taken from Eastern mythologies. Although the name of Phokaia comes from the seal, the main symbol of the city is the griffin. The walls of the Temple of Athena in the Archaic Period were also decorated with griffon protomes.

Phokaia I.D.5. he is known for a century as a member of the Delos Union who gives two talent taxes. I.D. he left the union in rebellion in 412.

During the Hellenistic period, with the Asia Minor expedition of Alexander the Great, the Persian invasion ended in Phokaia, as in many Western Anatolian cities. The city was later ruled by the Seleucids, Attalos and the Kingdom of Pergamon, one of the commanders of Alexander the Great. I of the Kingdom of Pergamon.D. when it was connected to the Roman Empire by will in 133, Phokaia shared the same fate. I.D. in 132, although Phokaia was united with Aristonikos, the ruler of Pergamon, who defied the Romans, I.D. the colony he founded in the 600s was saved from destruction with the help of the city Massalia. Pompeius gave Phokaia her freedom.

Phokaia was a bishopric center in the “Thema Thrakesion” region of the Byzantine Empire during the early Christian period. Kent, 11. it remained an unimportant Byzantine settlement until the century.

11. at the beginning of the century, the lands to the east of Phokaia gradually began to pass to the Seljuk State. Phokaia became a Venetian trading colony in 1082. During this period, Venetian colonial castles were established in Chandarli, Izmir, Kuşadası and Marmaris in Western Anatolia.

The Seljuk navy commander Çaka Bey, who could not come to an agreement with the Byzantine Emperor, captured Smyrna in 1086, then Khios, Klazomenai, Çeşme and Phokaia.

During the Crusades (1096-1291), the Latins became active in the administration of the Byzantine Empire and in commercial life. by establishing a new Latin State in 1204, they connected northwestern Anatolia to this state in 1211.

13. during the century, the Byzantine Empire supported the Genoese against the Venetians. The Byzantine emperors Michael VIII and Andronikos II (1272-1282), who held joint sovereignty, gave the city of Foca to a Genoese named Manuele Zaccaria in 1275. The trade of the alum mine in Foça made Manuele Zaccaria a lot of money, because the alum mine in Foça could only compete with a breed of alum found on the Black Sea coast. This mine was used in the pharmaceutical, leather and textile industries. Yeni Foça is a Genoese castle built by the Genoese because of the alum trade. The city wall in Foça also underwent a repair during this period.

when almost all of Anatolia fell into the hands of the Turks in the 1300s, cities such as Iznik, Izmit, Bursa, Sardes, Manisa, Karadeniz Ereğlisi, Izmir and Foça began to gain importance for the Turks.

Ottoman Sultan I. During the Bayezid period (1389-1402), Saruhan, Menteşe, Aydın principalities joined the Ottoman Empire, but in the 1402 Ankara war I. Timur, who defeated Bayezit, invaded Izmir and attached Foça and Khios to the tribute. 15. the Ottoman Empire, which became stronger in the century, annexed Yeni Foça and Foça to the Ottoman territory in 1455 with the Ottoman Navy under the leadership of Captain-ı Derya Yunus Pasha. Fatih Sultan Mehmet also incorporated Foça into the province of Manisa.

After this date, the production of alum did not stop; but it continued to be aimed at the domestic Sunday. This is due to the discovery of a new alum mine in Tolfa, near Rome, in 1461.

17. in the century, Foça was one of the port cities that provided the east-west connection of the Ottoman Empire. Iranian silk came to Foça via Eastern and Central Anatolia and was loaded onto ships from there and sent to England, Spain, France and other European countries. European states were paying taxes to the Ottomans for this road connection. 17. Foça lost this feature with the beginning of the use of the Indian Ocean route in the middle of the century.

17. in the middle of the century, Foça was one of the three ports on the Anatolian coast that had the most relations with Istanbul, along with Izmir and Edremit. The products sent were rock screed, millstone and dried fruits. Especially the raisin requirement of the palace kitchen was met from this region.

17. banditry was very common in the Aegean region in the century. According to the traveler Fermanel (1630), North African pirates were dominant in Foça. Izmir was still a small settlement center at this time.

17. at the end of the century, Foça consisted of a peninsula called “Kaleiçi”. 19. at the beginning of the century, the settlement overflowed outside the walls. According to an English traveler who visited Foça in 1835, four hundred of every thousand households were inhabited by Greeks and six hundred by Turks. 19. in the second half of the century, there was an intense internal migration from the Aegean islands to settlements in Western Anatolia. The majority of the immigrants were Turks.

in 1867, Foça and its parish were merged into Yeni Foça and connected to Manisa Province. May September 15, 1919 to September 11, 1922 it was under the occupation of the Greeks. Foça, which has come under Turkish rule again since this date, is a district of Izmir province today.