Turkey Guide
The Black Sea coast
Extending from just east of İstanbul to the frontier with Georgia, the Black Sea region is an anomaly, guaranteed to smash any stereotypes held about Turkey. The combined action of damp northerly and westerly winds, and an almost uninterrupted wall of mountains south of the shore, has created a relentlessly rainy and riotously green realm. It's not unlike North America's, or Spain's, northwest coast. The peaks force the clouds to disgorge themselves on the seaward side of the watershed, leaving central Anatolia beyond the passes in a permanent rain shadow.
The short summer season means there is little foreign tourism and no UK package operators currently serve the area (though Trabzon airport gets a few summer charters from Germany). However, in those months when the semi-tropical heat is on (July and August), you'll certainly want to swim. The sea here has its own peculiarities, just like the weather. It is fed huge volumes of fresh water by the Don, Dnieper and Danube rivers to the north, and diminished not by evaporation but by strong currents through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. The resulting upper layer is of such low salinity that you could almost drink it, were it not for the pollution of recent decades – much of which has been carried down the Danube from as far afield as Germany and Austria.
Highlights
1 Amasra Enjoy the small- town charm and historical pedigree of Amasra, with its old cobbled streets, Byzantine gateways and Genoese castle walls.
2 Aya Sofya Thirteenth-century frescoes in this Byzantine monastery at the edge of Trabzon are among the most vivid sacred art in Anatolia.
3 Sumela Cliff-clinging thirteenth-century monastery in a superb forested setting.
4 Uzungöl Large natural lake in the foothills of the Pontic range, the focus of a popular resort.
5 Hemşin valleys This lushly forested and pastured district is home to a colourful, outgoing people with their own tenaciously preserved culture.