diff --git a/benchmarks/.gitignore b/benchmarks/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9e1d2593e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmarks/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/Kconfig
diff --git a/benchmarks/Make.defs b/benchmarks/Make.defs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..73c1413b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmarks/Make.defs
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+############################################################################
+# apps/benchmarks/Make.defs
+#
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+# contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+# this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.  The
+# ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the
+# License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.  See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+############################################################################
+
+include $(wildcard $(APPDIR)/benchmarks/*/Make.defs)
diff --git a/benchmarks/Makefile b/benchmarks/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..905ea11dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmarks/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+############################################################################
+# apps/benchmarks/Makefile
+#
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+# contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+# this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.  The
+# ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the
+# License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.  See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+############################################################################
+
+MENUDESC = "Benchmark Applications"
+
+include $(APPDIR)/Directory.mk