Samsun

Samsun

Samsun is a city in the Central Karadeniz region of Turkey. It is the largest city and port on the Turkish Black Sea coast. Samsun has a special place in the republican history of Turkey, as this is where the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, has set foot to start the War of Independence in 1919. The present name of the city may come from its former Greek name of Amisos by a shortening of Eis Amisos (meaning to Amisos) + ounta (Greek suffix for place names) to Sampsunda (Σαμψούντα) and then Samsun. The early Greek historian Hecataeus wrote that Amisos was formerly called Enete, the place mentioned in Homer’s Iliad.

Samsun has a typical Black Sea climate with high and evenly distributed rainfall the year round. Summers are warm and humid, and the average maximum temperature is around 27 °C (81 °F) in August. Winters are cool and damp, and the lowest average minimum temperature is around 3 °C(37 °F) in January. Precipitation is heaviest in late autumn and early winter. Snow is quite common between the months of December and March but this usually varies considerably from year to year, and the snow cover and temperatures below the freezing point rarely last more than a couple of days. The water temperature, like on the rest of the Black Sea coast of Turkey, fluctuates between 8° and 20 °C (68 °F) throughout the year.