Panagia Sumela Monastery
/ By Josh
Set on a cliff above the forests of Trabzon and centered on a fresco covered cave church, the Monastery of Panagia Sumela is one of Turkey’s most spectacular sights.
While this region may take its name from that cold sea in the north, the beaches and coastland of the Black Sea region are mostly spoilt by ugly urban sprawl. The real charm in the Black Sea region lays just back from the coast in magnificent Pontic Alps where snow and rain laden clouds wreath the lush mountains and hide the scattered settlements and ruins. Being a region of near-inaccessible valleys for millennia the languages, music, food, and religion remained a unique blend until modern times which have brought about a greater degree of homogony. Despite these effects of modernisation in the cities, the black sea region remains an oddity in Turkey where the populace fiercely continues their unique traditions.
