The port town and provincial capital of Trabzon (ancient Trapezunt) is the most important town on the eastern Black Sea coast and the third largest of the Turkish Black Sea towns after Samsun and Zonguldak. It has a technical university. The coastal scenery is particularly beautiful with the steeply scarped peaks of the Eastern Pontic Mountains bordering a narrow coastal strip. The highest peak Tatos Dagi (3,937m/12,917ft) lies 100km/60mi to the east of Trabzon. The climate in winter is mild but often oppressively close in summer - ideal conditions for a luxuriant subtropical vegetation.
No other part of Turkey enjoys similar conditions. The road from Trabzon over the Gümüshane pass (Zigana pass 2,030m/6,660ft) through the Pontic Mountains to the Eastern Anatolian Plain has been a major factor in the development of the port.
History
Trabzon took its Greek name of Trapezous from the shape of its flat-topped acropolis (Greek "trapeza", table). According to Xenophon in the fifth century it was founded perhaps as early as the eighth century B.C. by settlers from the Greek colony of Sinope and it soon developed into a flourishing city. It lay at the end of a caravan route which was used to carry Persian goods to the Black Sea for onward transport to the Mediterranean. This was also the route by which Xenophon and his Ten Thousand found their way back to Trapezous after serving in Cyrus the Younger's campaign against Artaxerxes II. During the war between King Mithradetes Eupator of Pontus and the Roman general Lucullus (ca. 70 B.C.) the city remained neutral and was spared the ravages of war. It remained a free city after Rome gained control of Asia Minor. In A.D. 260 Trapezous was captured by the Ostrogoths and in Byzantine times it was the seat of a provincial governor but Seljuk attempts to take the town did not succeed. After the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 Alexius Comnenus V proclaimed himself emperor and made Trapezous capital of the reduced Greek Empire of the Comneni. After the re- establishment of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople the emperor granted Trapezous its independence. In 1461 it fell to the Ottomans under Sultan Mehmet II.
In recent decades Trabzon has shared in the general economic upturn of eastern Turkey and the harbor has been extended to enable it to handle vessels with a deeper draught.
The triple-aisled St Anne's Church is situated in the Iskander Pass quarter ("Kücük Ayvasil Kilise", small Armenian Church) of Trabzon. Nearby is St Basil's Church ("Büyük Ayvasil Kilise", large Armenian Church). Both churches date from the eighth century.
On the north side of the 244m/800ft Boztepe hill (fine views) in Trabzon stands the monastic Church of Panagia Theoskepastos, built in the 13th century on the site of an ancient temple (ancient frescoes).
The former Monastery of St George in Peristera can be reached from the village of Esiroglu (Yesirogu in the Maçka valley) which lies 28km/17mi south of Trabzon. A local guide is advisable and the walk will take at least three hours. This monastery and look-out post for Trabzon was built in the reign of Justinian (532). A famous collection of manuscripts was destroyed by a fire in 1906 and in 1923 the monks had to abandon the monastery.
About 5km/3mi south of Trabzon a steep track off the main Erzurum road leads to the Monastery of Kaymakli, where Armenian monks lived until 1923. The two-story building with an arcaded facade stands alongside the ruins of a bell-tower. In the vicinity two chapels can be found: one (1424) is now used as a hay barn and the other (1622) contains the remains of some paintings.
Trabzon consists of three districts built on low hill ridges - the commercial district or Iskander Pass immediately west of the harbor, the Cumhuriyet quarter adjoining it to the northwest and an old quarter of irregular streets and wooden houses further west.
The main road from Trabzon to Erzurum and Erzincan, runs southwest through the Eastern Pontic Mountains and climbs the 2,030m/6,660ft Zigana pass. It was perhaps on a mound near here (about an hour's walk) that Xenophon and his Ten Thousand caught their first glimpses of the Black Sea ("Thalatta!").
Read More
Read Less
Read More
Sumela Monastery
Read Less
Read More
Hezit Ilys, Turkey
Sumela Monastery, Trabzon
Sumela Monastery, Trabzon
