Malkara is a town and district of Tekirdağ Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. It is located at 55 km west of Tekirdağ and 190 km from Istanbul. It covers an area of 1,225 km², which makes the district the largest in Tekirdağ. Population of the town is 25,000 with another 36,000 residing in surrounding villages. The mayor is Ulaş Yurdakul .ClimateThe district has cold winters, wet winds from the Balkans blow hard across Thrace.HistoryThrace was the scene of fighting during the Persian Wars and the name Malkara is said to come from the Persian 'Margaar' meaning 'cave of snakes'. Alternatively the town may be named after 'Malgar' a general in the army of Alexander the Great who built a fortress here after they had succeeded in bringing to an end the Persian 30-year occupation of Thrace. These fortifications remained in use up until the Byzantine period.Once the area had been brought under Ottoman control it was settled with Turks from Anatolia and a Turkish town emerged which thrived supplying the Ottoman cavalry regiments. Malkara was then used as a place of exile for those out of favor in the Ottoman court including: Hacı Evhat – personal tutor to Suleiman the Magnificent, who exiled Evhat in 1524 when he did not like the lessons Koca Sinan Pasha – statesman and Grand Vizier, exiled for four years here after the failure of his campaign against Persia in 1580 Melek Ahmed Pasha – Grand Vizier, 1650–51 Boynuyaralı Mehmed Pasha – Grand Vizier, 1656 Bekri Mustafa Pasha – Grand Vizier, 1688–89 The 17th-century Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi described Malkara as a tidy, hard-working town of 150 houses of tiled roofs noted for production of honey, cheese, and leather.
