22 May 2012
After enjoying another day in Izmir at the completion of our East Med Tour we met up with a group of fellow yachties at Izmir airport and boarded a flight to Samson on the Turkish Black Sea Coast. This was our first experience with one of "Gwen's Tours" and what a great experience it was. Gwen is an American cruiser who has been in Turkey for many years and now enjoys putting together "tours" in Turkey for fellow cruisers.
Our first stop on this tour, was in Samsun, the busy port city and provincial capital, to take in a few of the important ancient and more recent historical sights.
Samsun (Amisos) was settled between the years of 760 - 750 BC by people from Miletus (Greece) who established a flourishing trading city. Like many other cities it has a long history of being taken over. The Romans took over in 47 BC and Amisos became part of the eastern Roman Empire, then in 1200 it was captured by the Seljuks and divided into Muslim Samsun and Gavur (Christian) Samsun Genoese raiders burnt it to the ground in the 1400s, so there's not much left of the old Samsun.
One of the most interesting sights was the Gogceli Camii (wooden mosque) which was built using chestnut wood. It is thought to have been built in 1206 and no nails were used in the construction. Although it has recently been renovated it is a tad "over the top" with the excessively bright colours overwhelming the beautiful timbers.
(Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them)
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| The Interior was hard to photograph. |
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| The grounds of the Complex |
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| Tom checking for Nails! |
Our visit to the National Struggle Park and Outdoor Museum was interesting as it was here that Kemel Ataturk came ashore from the SS Bandirma in May 19, 1919 to rally the people against Allied occupation and to begin the Turkish War of Independence.
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| Replica of the SS Bandirma |
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| Fran and Tom with Seven Figured National Struggle Statue |
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| Wax Models of Ataturk and others in the Lounge of SS Bandirma |
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| The grounds of the National Struggle Park were beautiful. |
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| Part of the Ceramic Relief |
We both thought that Samsun was just a ho hum city and do not need to go back there again.
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