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Samsun is a modern city, provincial
capital, important Black
Sea port and transportation center,
but has few sights to detain you.
Although it's very old, Genoese raiders burnt
it to the ground in the 1400s,
so there's not much left of old Samsun
(SAHM-soon, pop. 340,000).
It was in Samsun that Kemal
Atatürk came ashore on May
19, 1919 to rally the people
against Allied occupation and to
begin the Turkish War of Independence;
but a booming economy has covered
that quaint old 19th-century Samsun
with modern high-rise buildings.
The Archeological and Ethnographic
Museum and, right next door,
the Atatürk Museum, are
worth a look. Samsun also has numerous
decent hotels and restaurants.
Otherwise, you'll probably find yourself
heading west to Sinop or
east to Giresun and Trabzon on
the Black Sea
coast, or south to Amasya,
all of which are more interesting towns.
For details, see my Recommended
Itineraries, particularly the one
for Eastern
Turkey.
Bus
service is frequent and convenient
to Samsun, especially with the Ulusoy company.
The few trains from Sivas via Amasya take
twice as long and are not as comfortable.
Turkish
Airlines has daily flights from Istanbul to
Samsun.
Distances & Travel Times
Amasra:
Amasya: 130
km (81 miles), 2.25 hours
Ankara: 420
km (261 miles) SW, 8 hours
Bogazkale: 262
km (163 miles) S, 5 hours
Cappadocia (Ürgüp): 465
km (289 miles) S, 8 hours
Giresun: 209
km (130 miles) E, 3.5 hours
Istanbul: 733
km (456 miles) W, 11 hours
Kayseri: 450
km (280 miles) S, 8 hours
Sinop: 168
km (104 miles) NW, 3 hours
Sivas: 338
km (210 miles) S, 6 hours
Trabzon: 346
km (215 miles) E, 5.5 hours
Black Sea
Coast
Central
Anatolia
Turkey
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