Economically developed in quite another way, because more blessed by nature and more highly favored by its nearness to Constantinople, and on these accounts from of old, more densely populated, is the northwest coast of Asia Minor, the littoral of the Sea of Marmora. Here are situated on relatively shorter stretches of coast, no less than seven important old seaports which also belong completely to the Greek sphere of influence. There lie first, at and on the peninsula of Cyzicus, the old cities of Panormos (Panderma) and Artake (Artaki). The former is the more important as being the chief place of export for the sheep of Asia Minor, the value of which, even in 1893, amounted to fifteen million francs. Since then, the town, which has about 12,000 inhabitants, of whom 2,000 are Greeks, has become the terminus of the road that branches off from Manissa, and will take a sudden jump as soon as it has direct steamer connection with Constantinople. Artaki, an almost purely Greek town of about 7,500 inhabitants, subsists, in great part, from its manufacture of wine, liqueurs and cognac. In particular, the white wines produced here are highly esteemed in Constantinople. In the southeast corner of the Sea of Marmora are situated Mudania and Gemlik, the former, the old Apamea, the point of departure of the railroad to Broussa, having about 4,000 Greek and 2,000 Turkish inhabitants; the latter, the ancient Kios, which the Greeks have once more renamed by its old name, being an almost purely Greek town of 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants, which, like Aïvali, enjoys an almost complete independence. The chief exports are chromium-ore and tobacco (Kios-cigarettes!). Finally, in the deep bay of Ismid, besides Ismid itself, are at one and the other side of the city Karamursal (the ancient Prænetus) and Gebize (the Byzantine Dakibyza). Both are the capitals of districts in which the Greek population already surpasses the Turkish (1893: 15,000 Greeks and 11,000 Turks), although in the towns themselves the Turks are still in the majority (Gebize has about 4,000 Turks and 2,000 Greeks). Alongside of these places, however, especially along the line of the Haidar-Pasha-Ismid Railway are to be found many Greek places whose Greek population increases, in a very striking way, the nearer one gets to Constantinople. So, for example, Daridsha, the Byzantine Aretzu, which is now once more inhabited exclusively by Greeks, and Cadikioi, the ancient Chalcedon, which now numbers 30,000 to 35,000 inhabitants, who consist in almost equal numbers of Armenians, Greeks and Turks, while at the beginning of the 19th century it was inhabited almost entirely by Turks.