Black Sea Region travel guide
The Black Sea region is defined by its misty and verdant highlands, streams cascading freefall down dark canyons, folklore, and ethnic customs and traditions that make it distinct from the rest of Turkey. This is Turkey’s most reticent region, which often keeps its mystery and secrets to itself, but once discovered, the area draws visitors back time and time again with its stimulating environment.
Ancient Greek accounts of the Black Sea concern the legendary adventures of the rebel Jason and his Argonauts around 1000BC. This region was the kingdom of Colchis and the home of the legend of the Golden Fleece. Underwater archaeological excavations suggest this could be the site of the great flood of biblical fame, and remains of human settlements more than 7,000 years old are being studied. The Black Sea was once a freshwater lake but today is known for its brackishness and ‘blackness’.
Black Sea people, with their unrepressed music and dance traditions, have a culture shaped by geography and the environment. Aquiline profiles, fair colouring and a keen sense of humour are frequent amongst the Laz, as Black Sea people are known. In the northeast mountain villages, people still speak a dialect of Armenian, while those in çaykara and the town of Of speak Pontic Greek. Many inhabitants are Alevi rather than the more populous Sunni Muslims. Georgian is still spoken in the Borçka frontier area and many Georgians also speak their own form of Turkish.
With 1,250km (780 miles) of coastline, there are many undiscovered beaches, bays and pristine fishing villages west of Samsun. Travellers imagining the ‘shimmering towers of Trebizond’ may be disappointed, but turn inland, however, and a maze of winding roads leads to a feast of unspoilt green, damp wilderness, ancient castles and churches, fairy-tale forests and villages full of local spirit and colour. Try the Ottoman architecture of Safranbolu, or the islands off Amasra.
Places to visit in the Black Sea Region
Safranbolu
An unmissable stop is the city of Safranbolu, included in Unesco’s World Heritage List, with some 800 of the finest 19th-century Ottoman houses, or konaks, in Turkey. Many have been beautifully restored as period hotels or pensions. As its name suggests, Safranbolu is also noted for saffron. There are quaint ethnic shops and cultural attractions in the old market quarter, or Arasta. There is also a very pretty mosque and ablutions fountain dating from 1780 which is a focal point of the town, the Kazdagli Mosque (Kazdagli Camii).
Amasra
Amasra is 91km (56 miles) north of Safranbolu, an historic town between two fortified promontories with Hellenistic foundations and surviving Byzantine walls. The town is dominated by a magnificent 14th-century Genoese fortress, a reminder that the town was once a commercial and trading powerhouse. There is a charming mosque on the quay, Iskele Mosque, and a former Byzantine church converted to Fatih Mosque. Two offshore islands, Rabbit (Tavsan) Island and Grand (Büyük) Island, are not inhabited but are good for a picnic by boat.
Sumela Monastery
The Black Sea region’s most spectacular site is the Sumela Monastery, located in the secluded depths of Altindere National Park. Also known as the Monastery of the Black Virgin, Sumela is 55km (34 miles) southeast of Trabzon. It is a towering, seven-storey structure that perches dramatically on a ledge between heaven and earth, halfway up a sheer rock face above roaring waters. Legends tells that it was built by two monks from Athens acting on a visitation of the Virgin Mary. The last resident monks were transported, along with other Greek Ottomans, back to Greece in the population exchange of 1923. The present buildings date from the 12th century and contain many layers of frescoes; most of those still visible date from the 1700s. Although shamefully vandalised, Sumela is being restored and remains one of the Black Sea’s most spectacular attractions. Getting there is an arduous trek up a 1km- (½-mile-) long forest path.
Amasya
Amasya is one of the most attractive towns in Turkey and very much under-appreciated. It is 130km (80 miles) inland and was the first capital of the Pontic Kingdom until its rulers moved to Sinop in 120BC. Overlooking the Yesilirmak River, heritage Ottoman houses have bow windows overhanging the water, which is why they are known as waterfront (yaliboyu) houses. At night, floodlights beam up the cliffs near the citadel to highlight the well-preserved Pontic tombs. This was the ancestral home of the classical geographer, Strabo. Later, held as Seljuk territory, it was sacked by Genghis Khan’s Mongols in the mid-13th century.
There are two impressive Seljuk mosques: the Mosque of the Twisted Minaret (Burmali Minare Camii) and the Blue Seminary (Gök Medrese), a theological institution with outstanding 13th-century Seljuk architecture.
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