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Trabzon

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Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast

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Overview

Founded by Greek traders from Miletus in the 8th century BC, Trabzon has been handballed down the years between Cimmerians, Medes, Hellenes, Byzantines and a succession of other peoples. Once an important stop on the Silk Road, it remains the Black Sea's busiest port. Somewhat louche, it's the most sophisticated city in the region, too caught up in its own whirl of activity to worry about what's happening in far-off İstanbul or Ankara.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • Aya Sofya Camii

    Aya Sofya Camii

    Trabzon

    Standing in walled gardens amid symphonies of birdsong, 4km west of centre, is this fine 13th-century church-turned-mosque retaining some carved reliefs…

  • Atatürk Mansion

    Atatürk Mansion

    Trabzon

    This three-storey, blindingly white late-19th-century mansion has fine views and lovely formal gardens. Built for a wealthy Greek banking family in the…

  • Trabzon Şehir Müzesi

    Trabzon Şehir Müzesi

    Trabzon

    This professionally presented ethnographic museum tells the main points of the city's history three times over, once in film, once in artefacts and once…

  • Çarşı Camii

    Çarşı Camii

    Trabzon

    Recently restored with intricate ceiling paintings and back-lit panels in the spired minbar (pulpit), Çarşı Camii was till recently the largest mosque in…

  • Trabzon Museum

    Trabzon Museum

    Trabzon

    The Kostaki Mansion was constructed in 1917 for a Greek banker and briefly hosted Atatürk in 1924. The Ottoman Black Sea-style building, with its fine neo…

  • Gülbahar Hatun Camii

    Gülbahar Hatun Camii

    Trabzon

    Sultan Selim I the Grim, the Ottoman conqueror of Syria and Egypt (and known as Yavuz, or 'The Great' to the Turkish), built this mosque southwest of the…

  • Bedesten

    Bedesten

    Trabzon

    One of the most distinctive buildings of the bazaar area, the Bedestan is a 16th-century covered market hall – though, from its heavy octagonal uppers,…

  • Taş Han

    Taş Han

    Trabzon

    Typical of the Ottoman caravanserais of its time (1533), Taş Han was built in two storeys around an open courtyard. Today most of the spaces inside are…

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