Sunrise on the Black Sea

The Black Sea is 7,000 feet deep. If it were a Great Lake it would be the greatest at over twice the size of Lake Superior. It’s big.

It also, much like the Great Lakes, creates it’s own weather. This area of the Black Sea, in and around Trabzon (where we are) and Rize to the east are responsible for growing 75% of the world’s hazelnuts and a huge percentage of cherries. This area is also famous for its tea and there are tea plantations on the sides of the mountains that that rise up along the coast. This area averages most than 100 inches of rain annually and while it can snow, it’s temperate enough to grow palm trees.

People have lived here since around 750BC and as you can imagine historic. Alexander the Great conquered Trabzon but for the most part it was it’s own Kindgom for much of its early history.

Trabzon was a major port throught history and it wasn’t until the Suez Canal opened in 1956 that it started to lose its importance. This was a stop on the Silk Road and Venetian merchants used to visit Trabzon to trade. Another interesting factoid is that this is where Bob Dylan’s grandparents were from.

This is our jumping off point for our two week tour of Turkey. Below you can see where Trabzon is by finding the blue line on the map.

This will be our general itinerary and we hope you enjoy seeing some amazing and historic sites with us.