After three days in Istanbul for my 2014 Come See Turkey adventure we traveled to Trabzon, a coastal city in northeastern Turkey, founded by the ancient Greeks along the Black Sea in the ninth century BCE. It's a lovely city, but also a gateway to many great spots in the area, like the Sümela Monastery for instance.
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On the fourth day of my Come See Turkey 2014 adventure, we ventured to Trabzon to see the Sümela Monastery. Built in 386 CE by Roman monks, the monastery is a series of buildings, like a small village, carved right into the side of a huge cliff. A good word for it would be breathtaking. Though many sections were rebuilt a number of times over the centuries, the overall site remains intact. Thankfully many ancient frescoes still cover some areas top to bottom with wild images and colors. A fascinating look back directly into the early Christian era...
Any list of the must-see spots of northeastern Turkey in my mind has to include the ruins of the city of Ani, which you will find in the Kars region, right along the border with Armenia. There are two parts actually, the former city overlooking a river valley, and a countless cave dwellings below along the river...
Leaving Trabzon after our adventures there, we in the Come See Turkey group made our way through the Pontic and Kaçkar mountain ranges toward Kars. It was amazing to see the changes in environment, topography, and culture as we traveled through river valleys, snowy alpine passes, and down into steppes...
During my 2014 Come See Turkey experience, after visiting Sümela, we traveled from Trabzon to Kars, and we stopped for a bit in the town of Uzungöl, a lovely mountain retreat in the Çaykara district that would be at home in Switzerland...
In eastern Turkey there is a great variety of areas, with deserts and mountains and forests and lakes. Take for instance Lake Van, gorgeous and ringed by mountain peaks. I visited there on my 2014 Come See Turkey trip. We took a ferry boat out on the lake to Aghtamar Island, where once lived kings of Armenia and Vaspurakan. Now there's not much remaining beyond the lovely Cathedral of the Holy Cross...
