Trabzon

Trabzon is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the Black Sea coast, founded as Trapezus by Milesian Greek colonists around 756 BC. Its natural harbour made it a crucial waypoint on the ancient Silk Road trade routes connecting Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean world — a role it maintained for over two millennia.

The city's greatest historical moment came in 1204, when members of the Komnenian dynasty fled the sack of Constantinople and established the Empire of Trebizond — one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire. For over 250 years, Trebizond was a brilliant centre of Byzantine culture, scholarship and art, until it fell to the Ottomans in 1461, eight years after Constantinople itself.

The Hagia Sophia of Trabzon — not to be confused with its more famous namesake in Istanbul — is a stunning 13th-century Byzantine church with remarkable frescoes, now serving as a mosque. The Atatürk Köşkü, a white mansion on a forested hillside above the city, was where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed during his visits to Trabzon and is now a museum.

The surrounding highlands are among the most beautiful in Türkiye: the Sümela Monastery, carved into a sheer cliff face at 1,200 metres in the Altındere Valley, is a breathtaking 4th-century Greek Orthodox monastery. Uzungöl — a serene mountain lake surrounded by lush green hills and traditional wooden houses — has become one of Türkiye's most visited natural attractions, drawing visitors from across the world.