North coast (Black Sea)
Situation and Importance
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.
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