Trabzon

Sister cities

• Sochi
• Batumi
• Bishkek
• Dortmund
• Rasht
• Amasya
• Zanjan

History

Before the city was founded as a Greek colony, the area was dominated by Colchians (west Georgian) and Chaldian (Anatolian) tribes. The Hayasa, who had been in conflict with the Central-Anatolian Hittites in the 14th century BC, are believed to have lived in the area south of Trabzon. Later, Greek authors mentioned the Macrones and the Chalybes as native peoples. One of the dominant Caucasian groups to the east were the Laz, who were part of the monarchy of the Colchis, together with other related Georgian peoples. The city was founded in classical antiquity in 756 BC as Tραπεζούς (Trapezous), by Milesian traders from Sinope. It was one of a number (about ten) of Milesian emporia or trading colonies along the shores of the Black Sea. Others included Abydos and Cyzicus in the Dardanelles, and nearby Kerasous. Like most Greek colonies, the city was a small enclave of Greek life, and not an empire unto its own, in the later European sense of the word. As a colony, Trapezous initially paid tribute to Sinope, but early banking (money-changing) activity is suggested to have occurred in the city already in the 4th century BC, according to a silver drachma coin from Trapezus in the British Museum, London. Cyrus the Great added the city to the Achaemenid Empire, and was possibly the first ruler to consolidate the eastern Black Sea region into a single political entity (a satrapy). Trebizond's trade partners included the Mossynoeci. When Xenophon and the Ten Thousand mercenaries were fighting their way out of Persia, the first Greek city they reached was Trebizond (Xenophon, Anabasis, 5.5.10). The city and the local Mossynoeci had become estranged from the Mossynoecian capital, to the point of civil war. Xenophon's force resolved this in the rebels' favor, and so in…

Geography

Trabzon Province has a total area of and is bordered by the provinces of Rize, Giresun, and Gümüşhane. The total area is 22.4% plateau and 77.6% hills. The Pontic Mountains pass through the Trabzon Province. Trabzon used to be an important reference point for navigators in the Black Sea during harsh weather conditions. The popular expression "perdere la Trebisonda" (losing Trebizond) is still commonly used in the Italian language to describe situations in which the sense of direction is lost. A very small percentage of the province can be classified as subtropical, however, as slightly elevated rural areas near the coast are oceanic (Cfb/Do), the mountainous offshores are humid continental (Dfb/Dc) and subarctic (Dfc/Eo); and tundra (ET/Ft) can be found in the peaks of the Pontic Alps. Furthermore, during the time the Köppen climate classification was created, the city center had a borderline oceanic-humid subtropical climate, falling just under the threshold for the hottest month of the year, yet climate change and the city's urban heat island contributed to its reclassification as humid subtropical in recent decades. This and the fact that the subtropical microclimate zone along the shore occupies a very narrow band due to the continuous parallel mountain range starting right at the coast is why local authorities still classify the city as oceanic, as this climate subtype is better representative of the entire coastal region of the province. Summers are warm, the average maximum temperature is around in August, while winters are generally cool, the lowest average minimum temperature is in February. During winter, brief periods with foehn winds can cause temperatures to rise substantially, raising the seasonal average compared to the usual cold conditions. The…