Northeastern central Anatolia
Situation and Importance
Encircled by wooded hills up to 1,500m/4,923ft high, this modern provincial capital is situated about 230km/149mi northeast of Ankara on the edge of the extensive Çorum Çayi basin. As well as being the market town for 100 or
more villages scattered across the surrounding countryside (where, in addition to fruit and vegetables, several kinds of cereal are grown), Çorum is also heavily industrialized, the most important of its many industries being copper processing.
History
Excavation has revealed habitation here since at least the fourth millennium. B.C., including throughout the Hittite period (up to 1200 B.C.) and in Phrygian times. The town was Persian (from 546 B.C.) before falling into the hands of the diadochi in the fourth century. After a short spell of Galatian (276 B.C.) and later Roman and Byzantine rule, it was occupied in 1075 by the Danishmendid Ahmet Gazi (who named it Çorum). Control then passed to the Seljuk Kiliç Arslan, the Mongols and the Eretna dynasty, before the town finally came into Ottoman possession in 1393.