PART 8: The Flatlands, Samsun Turkey

The familiar mountainous landscape of the Black Sea coast comes to an abrupt end past Unye. From here to Sinop, one has the two broad alluvial plains of the Yeşilırmak (the Çarsamba Plain) and the Kızılırmak (the Bafra Plain) alternating with the hill countries of the Samsun region and the Alaçam-Gerze stretch. The eastern boundary of the former Empire of Trehi/ond is crossed
at Unye. Hazelnut gives way to tobacco fields around Çarşamba.
Near Terme are the meagre ruins of ancient Themiscyra, which classical writers associated with the Amazons, the legendary female warriors. Strabo relates that Amazons lived among themselves in the vicinity of Themiscyra for ten months of the year, and spent the remaining two months in the intimate company of the neighboring Gagarians. The resulting babies were kept if they were girls, but sent back to the fathers if boys. Amazons of a less radical variety can now be observed hawking and haggling at the women's market of Terme.
Any combination of side roads cap be taken from the area of Terme to the fascinating natural sanctuary of the marshlands of the Çarşamba Plain. This is an extraordinarily fertile land of detached farms, woods, canals and lagoons that one is tempted to compare with the Camargue or the Mississippi bayou country. At the outer edge is the mazelike Simenlik Lagoon. posiitively teeming with jumping kefal (grey mullet) under the surface and several hundred species of birds, including large flocks of wild ducks, above it. Further out, one finds an extensive and unspoiled beach, one of the finest on the whole Black Sea coast. The region is seldom visited by tourists and locals tend to be extremely direct and spontaneous toward the odd visitor. Most are avid fishers, hunters and rakı-drinkers. With their help a supposedly short detour runs the risk of stretching into a stay of a day or two, possibly at the farm of someone like Cavit Kurnaz at Kabah village, in a secluded environ¬ment where one feels liberated from all sense of time and location.
Samsun might come as something of a shock after so much serenity. This is a bustling port city which has grown almost 20-fold in population over the last 70 years and shed all traces of historic or esthetic value in the process. Even Atatürk did not stay long, altthough his arrival on May 19th, 1919, is writ large across the town The date
marked the beginning of the move¬ment of national resistance that eventually led to the creation of the Turkish Republic. Samsun celebrates it not only with sumptuous ceremonies on the anniversary each year, but also with a large number of mementoes ranging from the name of the main street to the local 19 Ma yıs kebabı which may be tasted at the restaurant of Grand Hotel Samsun. In July, the pageant of the great commercial fair (called-what else-the 19 Mayıs Fair) may justify a few hours' delay.
Samsun is at the center of the most important tobacco-growing region of Turkey, as attested by the name of the country's most popular cigarette brand. But the bustling town of Bafra is a better place to observe the authentic colors and flavors of an oldfashioned tobacco market.

PART 1: Hazelnut Country
PART 2: Stately Houses
PART 3: Texas in Turkey
PART 4: Birds, Castles, Lost Churches
PART 5: Cherrytown
PART 6: Şebinkarahisar
PART 7: Ordu to Unye
PART 8: The Flatlands
PART 9: A Historic Metropolis
PART 10: Paphlagonia
PART 11: The Tail End