TREBIZOND, the principal Turkish port on the Black Sea; on the N. E. coast of Asia Minor, and the second com mercial city of the empire; 110 miles N. W. of Erzerum. It is finely situated on the steep slope of the Kolat Dagh (800 feet high) facing the sea, and is partly surrounded by walls, and further defended by a Genoese citadel on an ad joining hill, and by forts at the mouth of the harbor. The gorge-like course of a mountain stream traverses Trebizond, and is crossed by several bridges. The coast is high and crested with pine woods, and from the sea the irregularly built town, with its minarets and gar dens, has a striking appearance. There are 18 mosques, 15 Christian churches, and many elegant baths and spacious bazaars. The industries, chiefly weaving and dyeing, are unimportant; but the products of the surrounding country, which form part of the exports of Treb izond, comprise considerable quantities of boxwood, loupes or walnut-tree knobs, valued in France for veneers, beans, wheat and Indian corn, fruits and pro visions, nuts and walnuts, skins, wool, tiftick and fillick, and tobacco. Trebi zond is an emporium for the Persian trade, but has suffered greatly from the opening of the railway from Tiflis to Poti, and the diversion of trade to Ba toum. It is a terminus for caravans
from Erzerum, Armenia, Kurdistan, Tabriz, etc., and has regular communica tion by steam line with Constantinople, the Danube, and French ports. The har bor is only an open roadstead, and dur ing the autumn equinoxes vessels have to shelter either at Batoum or at Platina, 6 miles W. Besides the opening of the Poti railway, the want of good roads in the interior, the neglect of the larger crown forests, and the imposition of heavy custom dues, have checked Treb izond's prosperity. Trebizond, founded by a colony from Sinope, 756 a. C., was a great trading town in Xenophon's time, and continued to flourish as an emporium for the Indian trade under the Roman empire. Its period of greatest prosperity as capital of the Comnenian empire of Trebizond began in 1204 and lasted till 1461, when David, last of the Comnenes, was captured by Mohammed II. Since then Trebizond has belonged to the Porte. Pop. about 55,000. The city was captured by the Russians in 1916, but disorganization had already begun in the army and they made only a weak attempt to hold it.