Land of Green Mountains
İn landscape and history, the Black Sea coast is different from the rest of Turkey. A high range of mountains - the Pontic Alps - have historically blocked access to the region, giving rise to strongly marked local cultures. High rainfall supports a lush vegetation in the mountain valleys crossed by wild streams and waterfalls. The northern foothills of the Kaçkar range, where it rains 250 days a year, are covered with jungle-like forest.
There is no shortage of beaches along the coast: yet neither the unpredictable climate nor the charmless sprawl of coastal cities encourages serious beach tourism. The true splendours of the Black Sea lie in the mountains, where traditional lifestyles survive intact and monuments like the Sutnela monastery near Trabzon or the Georgian churches ofArtvin amaze the i infrequent visitor.
Further inland, behind the mountains, one finds attractive old towns like Safranbolu, Kastamonu and Amasya which are full of delightful I examples of traditional Ottoman civil architecture, some of them converted I into guesthouses in the framework of a government-sponsored programme.
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