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Karataş is a district of İzmir, Turkey. It was the Jewish quarter of İzmir during the Ottoman era, particularly for the middle- or richer classes. The poorest were usually either concentrated in Mezarlıkbaşı quarter, around Havra Sokağı (Synagogue Street) or were scattered across the city. Karataş is still the area in İzmir where most members of the city's Jewish community continue to live.

Asansör, literally "the escalator", built in 1907 by a businessman named Nesim Levi to allow people to climb the elevated part of the area that is separated by the coastal strait by a steep cliff, is one of the principal landmarks of Karataş, as well as for İzmir as a whole. The street where Asansör is situated is named Dario Moreno Street (Dario Moreno Sokağı), in memory of the singer-composer who had actually bought a house for his mother in that street and had lived there during the first phases of his fame.(wikipedia)