Hagia Sofia Museum, the Main Tourist Site in the Ancient Black Sea Port City of Trabizon, Turkey

Trabzon, the major Turkish port on the southeastern part of the Black Sea, was ancient Trapezus, and more recently rendered in English, not least as the destination in Rose Macauley's (1956) The Towers of Trebizond , as Trebizond. The ancient Greek city was also the destination of the desperate surviving six thousand of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries marching north from Babylon circa 401BC, recounted by Xenophon in the Anabasis. It was also a terminus '" the easternmost of the west termini '" of the Silk Road, where goods were shifted from camel caravans to boats.

For Turks, Trabzon has an Ataturk pilgrimage site, the 1890 villa where he stayed on visits between 1924 and 1937. Though Trabzon was the birthplace of Sultan Sulayman (Suleiman) the Magnificent in 1494, I did not find this or him commemorated in Trabzon. Nor did any of the mosques in Trabizon seem notable.

Just as the primary tourist site in Trabzon Province is the cliffside S¼mela Monastery, founded in 386 AD, the main site of interest to foreign visitors is a Byzantine (Greek Orthodox) church now a museum, Ayasofya M¼zesi (Hagia Sophia, Holy Wisdom, the same name as in the great domed church in Constantinople/Istanbul). It was built between 1238 and 1263, during the reign of Manuel I Megas Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond. Like Constantinople, Trebizond was conquered by Mehmed II (al-Fatih, the conqueror). Like the Constantinople Hagia Sophia, the Trebizond was turned into a mosque, the frescoes covered with whitewash.

Hagia Sophia was not turned back into a church during the brief Russian occupation during World War I, and became a mosque again with the foundation of the Turkish Republic. The frescoes were uncovered between 1958 and 1964 with held from archaeologists and engineers from Edinburgh University and has been a museum ever since.

The church is cruciform with a central dome 13 meters tall. Little of the floor mosaic remains, but the frescoes are both much older and in much better condition than those in the S¼mela Monastery.

Set entirely apart from the church is a belfry built in 1427 that is 40 meters high. Neither the church nor the belfry is topped by a cross.

The grounds include tea bushes, both Muslim and Christian tombstones. Under a tin roof are some Seljuk tiles and a mix of Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman inscriptions and architectural ornaments.

Admission is 10TL (the current exchange rate if $1.59US to one TL).