Asia > Turkey > Trabzon
Trabzon is Turkey's principal port on the Black Sea coast, a city that has functioned as a trading hub since the ancient Greeks established a colony called Trapezus here in the eighth century BCE. For eight years in the 13th century it was briefly the capital of a Byzantine successor state, the Empire of Trebizond, which left behind some extraordinary churches before the Ottomans absorbed the city in 1461.
The Hagia Sophia of Trabzon is one of the finest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture in Turkey, a 13th-century church with well-preserved frescoes set in a park with sea views. The Trabzon Museum occupies a late Ottoman mansion that gives some sense of how prosperous Black Sea merchants lived a century ago. The Fatih Mosque, converted from the church of the Byzantine empress, reflects the seamless transitions of religious and political authority that characterise Trabzon's history.
The city also serves as the gateway to some extraordinary scenery. The Kaçkar Mountains rise steeply from the coast, and the highland plateau above Trabzon — Çaykara, Uzungöl, and the Pontic alpine pastures — contains one of the most distinctive landscapes in Turkey: green meadows, glacial lakes, wooden chalets, and a culture that still practices transhumance in the summer months. Trabzon is a working port city without Istanbul's polish, but the combination of Byzantine heritage, Black Sea seafood, and mountain access makes it a worthwhile destination.
The region is strongly associated with tea — Turkey produces most of its tea here, and the hillsides between Trabzon and Rize are covered with tea plantations. A glass of çay is never far away.