Enez (Ainos) was an important ancient times,today it lies 3.5 km.inland.Its origins can be traced to the 12th century B.C. and was an important settlement during the Hellenic,Roman,Byzantine and Ottoman periods.Currently,it remains an open-air museum and was built by the Kyme people and was known as a colony of western Anatolian civilization.

Enez Castle has been restored several times throughout history and is well worth a visit.There is also a church  dating from the 6th century B.C. some carved tombs and a beach with clear water.The people here are quite hospitable and Enez makes an interesting stopover.

Enez, ancient Ainos, is located on the north Aegean coast, at the mouth of River Meriç (Hebros), the most important river of Thrace. With its two well-preserved harbors it was an important city of culture and trade at a juction of sea, river and land routes connecting the Balkans with the Aegean and Anatolia.

The importance of Enez from the standpoint of cultural history certainly arises from its crosroads location and the rich and bountiful hinterland and the River Ergene basin. River Meriç forms a wide delta starting from the north of  Enez and flowing into the Aegean Sea. This semi-swamp area is bounded on the east by Mount Hisarlı, which extends east to west. South of  Hisarlı the vast and bountiful plains and rolling hills have rendered the area convenient for continuous settlement since prehistoric times.

Ancient sources provide various accounts regarding the founding of Enez: it is first mentioned as Ainos by Homer (Iliad IV,520), who mentions Ainos as a city in Thrace. Our excavations within the existing citadel on the acropolis yielded sherds dating to the 4th and 3th millennia BC, proving that the settlement dates back to the Chalcolithic. Enez has been host to Persians, Greeks, Geneus and Macedonians by all of the history.In the antiquity, Enez was the capital of the Rhodope region. In the Middle Ages, however, it was the well-protected center of a principality that included the islands of Samothrace (present-day Semadirek) and Imbros (Gökçeada). In this period, the Genoese families of Gattelusis and Dorias ruled here for two centuries and in 1456 at the time of Mehmet the Conquerer, Has Yunus Bey besieged Enez captured it for the Turks.

The high level of culture and material wealth that Enez had reached in antiquity is well attested to by the ceramic and sculpture work. Enez is located on the Via Egnatia and its secondary roads, which started at Istanbul and ended at Apollonia on the Adriatic. It was an important harbor city in antiquity.

Excavations at Enez will help us shed light on to the military, cultural and commercial relations between the Balkans, Aegean islands and Anatolia.