Did You Know?
A Monastery Built Into a Cliff
The Sumela Monastery clings to a rock face roughly 300 metres above the valley floor, founded in the 4th century and rebuilt many times since. Reaching it was the point: the site was chosen because it was almost impossible to get to.
Trabzon was the capital of the Empire of Trebizond, the last Byzantine successor state, which outlived Constantinople by eight years before falling in 1461.
The clock: Trabzon lies in the east of Türkiye's single time zone. In midsummer the sun rises here before 05:00 and sets before 20:00, while Istanbul on the same clock still has daylight until about 20:40.