03Cities and regions

Black Sea

Trabzon and its mountains

Trabzon lies on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Türkiye and is the second-largest city and port on this shore, with about 335,000 people in the city. Greek traders from Miletus founded it in 756 BC as Trapezous, 'the table', after the flat-topped hill it was built on. The city's Hagia Sophia was built between 1238 and 1263, and its surviving frescoes were uncovered between 1958 and 1964. South of town, in the Pontic Mountains, Sumela Monastery hangs on a steep cliff at around 1,200 metres above the Altındere valley. Its foundation is dated to around 386; today it is a museum, closed in 2015 because of falling rocks and reopened in 2019. Some 95 kilometres southeast of the city lies Uzungöl, a lake formed when a landslide dammed a mountain stream, with a village on its shore and high peaks all around. Give Sumela one day and Uzungöl another, and pack an umbrella: the eastern Black Sea coast is among the most humid and rainy parts of the country.

About 1,200 m

Altitude of Sumela

0 km

City to Uzungöl

1263

Hagia Sophia of Trabzon completed