Samsun: where the Turkish revolution began on the Black…

On the Black Sea, Samsun remains the place where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk landed in 1919 launching Turkey's war of independence.

The center, where Turkey's revolution began on the Black Sea, is comfortably explored by taxi or shared minibus.

The Atatürk Museum, housed in the building where Turkey's future founder lodged upon arrival, reconstructs the early days of the war of independence.

Steps away, the Landing Monument, on the waterfront, marks the exact point where Atatürk touched land on May 19, 1919, a date now celebrated as Turkey's national holiday.

Heading along the coast, you visit the Samsun Archaeological Museum, which displays remains from the ancient Greek colonies founded on the Black Sea.

Toward evening, Samsun's waterfront animates fresh fish restaurants caught in the Black Sea.

May 19, 1919, the day Atatürk landed at Samsun, is celebrated annually in Turkey as Youth and Sports Day, marking the symbolic beginning of the national independence war.

Samsun was founded as a Greek colony in the seventh century BCE under the name Amisos, an ancient origin that makes it one of the most historically layered cities on Turkey's Black Sea coast, bearing Greek, Roman, and Ottoman influences.