Bayburt

Sister cities

• Varna
• Perth
• Ali Sabieh
• Mekele

History

Bayburt was a part of Hayasa-Azzi, then was subsequently settled or conquered by the Cimmerians in the the Medes in the then the Persian Empire, Lesser Armenia, Pontus, Greater Armenia, Rome, the Byzantines, the Bagratid Armenian Kingdom, the Seljuk Turks, the Aq Qoyunlu, Safavid Persia, and then the Ottoman Turks. The town was the site of an Armenian fortress in the 1st century and may have been the Baiberdon fortified by the emperor Justinian. It was raided by the Seljuks in 1054, recaptured by Theodore Gabras, and conquered by the Danishmendids before the Crusade of 1101. It was a stronghold of the Genovese in the late Middle Ages and prospered in the late 13th and early 14th century because of the commerce between Trebizond and Persia. It contained a mint under the Seljuks and Ilkhanids. From c. 1243 to 1266, Bayburt was under brief control of the Georgian princes of Samtskhe. A Christian church within the Bayburt Castle was built in the 13th century under the Trapezuntine or Georgian influence. Bayburt and the surrounding areas are considered to be one of the earliest Turkish settlements in Anatolia. Under Ottoman rule, the town was the center of the Bayburt Sanjak in Erzurum Eyalet. When Erzurum was devastated in the early 16th century, Bayburt served for a time as the de facto capital of the province. though the population grew to 6000 by the 1870s. The bazaar, however, remained poor and the town long lacked industry. On the eve of the First World War, the population of 10,000 was mostly Turkish with some Armenians. According to the Qamus al-A'lam (Qāmūsu'l-aˁlām/قاموس الأعلام, “Dictionary of the World”) of Shemseddin Sami, Sanjak of Bayburt, comprising four kazas called Ispir, Şiran, Kelkit and Bayburt itself, had 505 villages and 40 nahiyes. The sanjak…

Geography

Bayburt straddles the Çoruh amid an open and fertile plateau on the route between Trabzon and Erzurum. Bayburt has a continental climate with warm summers and cold winters. Precipitation is fairly frequent most of the year, with a peak in spring. The city gets frequent, but not necessarily heavy snow, the highest snow depth recorded was 110 cm (43.3 inches) in March 1976. Highest recorded temperature: on 15 August 2019Lowest recorded temperature: on 20 January 1972

Most-observed species

• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  24
• Western Jackdaw

  Coloeus monedula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  22
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  22
• Rook

  Corvus frugilegus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  20
• White Wagtail

  Motacilla alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  20
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  19
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  19
• Eurasian Linnet

  Linaria cannabina (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  15

Most recent

• M 4.2 — 2026-04-26
  7 km WSW of Yedisu, Turkey
• M 4.1 — 2026-01-02
  10 km NE of Yedisu, Turkey
• M 4.4 — 2025-12-09
  14 km SSE of Cimin, Turkey
• M 4.2 — 2025-09-25
  13 km NNE of Aşkale, Turkey
• M 4.1 — 2025-04-09
  20 km N of Erzincan, Turkey
• M 4.2 — 2025-03-20
  11 km NE of Yedisu, Turkey