Samsun

Samsun (anc. Amisus), the chief town of the Janik sanjak of the Trebizond vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated on the S. coast of the Black Sea between the deltas of the Kizil and Yeshil Irmaks. Pop. about 15,000, two-thirds Christian. It is connected by metalled roads with Sivas and Kaisarieh, and by sea with Constantinople. It is a thriving town, and the outlet for the trade of the Sivas vilayet. Steamers lie about 1 m. from the shore in an open roadstead, and in winter landing is sometimes impossible. Its district is one of the principal sources of Turkish tobacco, a whole variety of which is known as "Samsun." Samsun exports cereals, tobacco and wool. Both exports and imports are about stationary, the Angora railway having neutralized any tendency to rise. Amisus, which stood on a promontory about I a m. N.W. of Samsun, was, next to Sinope, the most flourishing of the Greek settlements on the Euxine, and under the kings of Pontus it was a rich trading town. By the 1st century A.D. it had displaced Sinope as the N. port of the great trade route from Central Asia, and later it was one of the chief towns of the Comneni of Trebizond. There are still a few remains of the Greek settlement. (D. G. H.)