Turkey’s Black Sea coast

A typical Ottoman city, which saw its heyday in the 17th century, Safranbolu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that exhibits some of the finest and most well-preserved examples of Ottoman architecture.

Visiting here is like time-traveling back to the pre-industrial era. The city’s finely preserved cobblestone streets lead past meticulously renovated historic frame houses, mosques, inns, bathhouses, fountains and shrines.

Safranbolu’s craftsmanship and material wealth are displayed in its architecture, which influenced the rest of the Ottoman Empire. The town played a key role in the caravan trade as a waypoint on the main East-West trading route.

Top attractions include the Cinci Hamam, the Köprülü Mehmet Pasha and Izzet Mehmet Pasha Mosques, the Incekaya Aqueduct and the Old City Hall and Clock Tower.

Safranbolu is said to take its name from saffron, which is grown and traded locally. It’s also famous for its lokum, or Turkish Delight, which is much lighter and less sweet than traditional versions found elsewhere in the country.

Made with the mineral-rich waters of Safranbolu and natural sugar, the historic city’s own lokum is filled with coconut and hazelnut, saffron and pistachio, rose or mastic.

With charming houses stacked up around two natural harbors, the pretty Black Sea port town of Amasra is a popular local destination thanks to sandy beaches and small eateries serving local fish.

It’s also an ancient treasure trove thanks to the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans who have all coveted this strategic coastal location. It even rated a mention in the ancient Greek poem “Iliad.”

Experts believe that the town was once an ancient city with monumental public architecture. Much of this is believed to still be located below ground level, especially underneath newer constructions that make excavations difficult.

Some artifacts have been unearthed. These, ranging 3,000 years from pre-history to Roman times, are on display in the small but impressive Amasra Museum.

Over the water – and best appreciated by boat – stands Amasra Fortress. Built by the Romans and enhanced by successive empires, it reaches from a narrow strip of mainland to an offshore island, connected by the Boztepe Arch bridge.

Amasra is popular with Turkish tourists who flock to the two main beaches, Küçük Liman and Büyük Liman, in warmer months. The seafront is filled with restaurants that serve locally caught fish, traditional meze and stunning sunsets all year round.

Draped over steep-sided green valleys that spill down toward the Black Sea, Trabzon is a city that’s as brimming with history as the rest of the region.

One of Turkey’s oldest trade port cities and a key stop on the Silk Road, Trabzon has for centuries been a destination where different ethnicities, cultures and languages mix.

A mixture of modern apartment blocks and renovated Ottoman-era architecture, the city was once the capital of the Empire of Trebizond and still has defensive walls, some dating back to Byzantine times.

One of the city’s main sites is the Hagia Sophia Mosque. Built in the 13th century, it’s extensively decorated with beautiful minute frescoes that crowd its vaulted ceilings and main dome.

Trabzon also gives its name to a surrounding region blessed with incredible scenery. Amongits most riveting historic sites is the Sumela Monastery, one of the world’s oldest, built right into a cliff in the Pontic Mountains, overlooking the Altındere Valley.

Pilgrims have been making the trip on foot here for 1,600 years. The reward for climbing the more than 100 steep steps is the monastery’s inner courtyard, which reveals itself like a small, hidden village sheltered within the cavernous mountain walls.

Believed to date back to 386 C.E. and taking centuries to build, the monastery is composed of around 70 rooms built into and around the jagged façade. It has a rock church with stunning frescoes of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

There’s an aqueduct and a library, as well as living quarters for the monks.

Guide Yuksel Malkok says the monastery was founded, according to legend, by two monks inspired by a dream of the Virgin Mary, who told them that she’d flown to the mountains and left an icon in a place called Sumelas.

“So they came here, found the icon and built this church.”

The monastery was abandoned in 1923 after Turkey and Greece agreed to uproot millions of people in a population exchange, sending Orthodox Christians to Greece. Today, it’s a tourist attraction.

During a restoration period between 2015 and 2017 a secret passageway was also discovered leading to an altar with frescoes depicting heaven and hell.

A 90-minute drive into the leafy countryside southeast of Trabzon port leads to Uzungöl, a lake and village situated inside an evergreen valley and surrounded by rising mountains.

On the shore, the twin-minareted white Uzungöl mosque appears to float serenely over the water, adding to the natural majesty of this idyllic alpine setting.

Visitors either come here for the day to stroll by the water and eat local Karadeniz specialties in one of the many lakeside restaurants, or to stay longer to explore the hiking trails that meander into the mountains, which are often bedecked in clouds due to the high elevation.

The most memorable experience, however, is reserved for the true adventure seekers who book a paragliding tour with one of Uzungöl’s outdoor sports centers. The thrill ride includes bird’s eye views of the sprawling valley in deep green and blue - one of the most bucolic landscapes in Turkey.