So I’m surrounded by mountains covered with green fields and really pretty lakes. If you
thought landscapes like this only existed in the Alps, you're wrong. I’m in the Pontic mountains of
Turkey near the Black Sea and in this video we're gonna take a better look at this region
So right now I’m in the gorgeous historic city of Trabzon which is right next to the
Black sea behind me, which is why it's been a major trading center for over 3000 years
Greek sources claim that this was a Greek colony all the way back in 756 bc called
Trebizond and then it was under the Roman and the Byzantine empire. Speaking of Roman
times. I’m trying to get to the most famous architectural site from the Roman times
but the trick is it's a bit far from the city so it's a little tricky to get there
this goes to Macka and sumaila? Sumaila -taxi from Macka? Ok
found a mini bus that goes to Macka but maybe it'll take me to Sumela
so it looks like I worked out an agreement with the Dolmus driver and he's gonna take
me all the way to the monastery, wait for me for one and a half hours and come back
for like a hundred Turkish liras. Okay so I’m very close to the monastery
finally. This last bit takes a little bit of walking so I’m getting there. It's a lot
colder than I expected for sure but that makes sense because we're literally up in the clouds
the driver is coming with me to take photos. What's your name?
Erol? Erol Nadir. Nadir? Yeah it's Turkish name (laughs)
so I’m climbing the steps to the monastery this monastery was built in the 4th century a.d during
the reign of the Roman emperor Theodosius the great but it didn't really reach the final form
up until about the 13th century ad when it was under the empire
of Trebizond. This was created as a sanctuary or a church for the Virgin Mary
and it was built literally in a cave on the side of this huge cliff overlooking this valley
so right now I’m in this area that is called the backyard of the Sumela monastery. You can
pretty much walk through a lot of what used to be the cathedral and you can see the different rooms
and what they were used for and you can also see a lot of frescoes that have sort of survived for the
last 1000 or 2000 years. So behind me you see some of the frescoes or artwork from the old church
sadly a lot of this you'll notice has been heavily defaced over the centuries
this whole region has been in a lot of geopolitical conflicts over the last 2000 years
over different ethnicities nationalities and religions so the people who made the
cathedral were not always able to hold on to it and protect it. Most recently even up until
less than a hundred years ago this whole area of Trabzon was sort of populated with
the Greeks and christians but after the great population exchange that obviously changed
and there was no one to protect this place for a long long time but the Turkish government
now has put a lot of effort into restoring and protecting whatever is left of these frescoes
found a puppy to play with. He's so happy!
i think that stick might be a little bit too big for that dog but no one tell him
okay so we have stopped again like a little bit of drive away from the actual monastery
because sometimes the best view is not from the place itself, but from a little further from it
So I’m back in the city of Trabzon and I’m in the very city center and this is a really really
gorgeous city and if you really take a look at this place, this place doesn't even look Turkish
because until not so long ago it wasn't even Turkish. So after the byzantine empire fell
apart the successor state that sort of took over this area was the empire of Trebizond and
that place became really successful because it taxed all the goods that was exported from here
as this was one of the main ports used to take goods out of Persia
into the Mediterranean sea and into Europe so in 1461, eight years after Mehmed the conqueror took
over Istanbul, he finally took over Trebizond but even after this was part of the ottoman empire
most of the people remaining here were Christians. 50 years after Mehmed the conqueror took the city
85 % of the people living here were still Christians and 90 %of them were Greeks
which explains all the architecture around here and it sort of continued to be that exact way for
many hundreds of years up until world war one happened and then after the great war finally
ended there was the big population exchange between Greece and Turkey which is when finally
this place became really Turkish because a hundred thousand Greek people had to move out of here
and into Greece. So I’m just walking around the city center still and I can't overstate how
much this looks like eastern European city more than it looks like a Turkish city
Tea? Chai Yes.
Bangladesh yes yes! How did you know??
so the day is coming to an end so I’m going to finish this off
classic Turkish style with a cup of tea
this is day two of my adventures in Trabzon and I signed up for this tour company for this full
day tour to this really cool village called Ayder that's like up in the mountains and it's supposed
to really pretty but we just came to this like random spot on the way and we stopped for a while
I don't know what's going on. It's like a rafting place I hope we're not gonna wait here too long
so right now I’m at this place called Huser highlands which is at an altitude of 2400 meters
and this is absolutely gorgeous. This is really cool
so freaking gorgeous
so the people here living up on the hills have this like mini cable car
system of transporting goods up there from the streets which I thought was pretty interesting
So it's starting to rain so no more drone shots for right now at least. So I was actually wrong
earlier, this place is not Huser. Huser is like 5-10 kilometers away. This place
is Ayder so I guess this is what I came to see
I just got some lunch some good old Turkish beans and rice
okay so it's day three and I’m at probably one of the more interesting buildings
in Trabzon. So this gorgeous bit of architecture which is right next to the Black sea behind me
is called the hagia sofia. Yes exactly like the hagia sofia in Istanbul. This place is not
quite as old as that hagia sofia but also has a very very very similar history. This was built
at first in the 13th century as a church during the empire of Trebizond's reign over this area
then it was converted to a mosque, then it was converted to a museum and then again more recently
in the last decade it was converted back to a mosque but it's the weirdest mosque I’ve ever seen
because it totally 100% looks like a church from the outside. I mean look at those red tile roofs
that doesn't look like a mosque. On the side of the building, there's this room where you can see
all the christian frescoes from like 800 years ago but then if you go in the main entrance
it's a mosque and people are praying inside It's a very interesting sight to see
all right guys so I want to finish the vlog from this very famous tea garden next to the
Hagia Sofia. If you like this video don't forget to hit the like button. If you want to see more
videos by me from Turkey or from anywhere else in the world feel free to subscribe
to my channel. If you do want to see where I am in real time and what I’m doing in real time
feel free to follow me on Instagram @ Nadironthego I post a lot of stories over there
That's it for this one .Catch you guys in the next one from somewhere in Turkey, probably Kars