Sinop Turkey
Turkey
Frequently Asked Questions
A short distance from the heart of the town: almost everything is walkable. The scene is set within minutes: fishing boats moored in tight rows, nets spread on the quays, restaurants grilling the morning's catch and, behind it all, the ramparts.
He was born here. Diogenes the Cynic, Sinop's most famous son, lived in a jar and walked about in broad daylight with a lantern, saying he was looking for an honest human being. A statue shows him lantern in hand, right among the shopping streets.
The most striking sight of the call. A shipyard in Seljuk times, the site was converted into a prison in 1887 and remained one until 1999. Now a museum, it can be walked freely: silent courtyards, dormitories with barred windows, thick walls where the sea echoes.
Emotionally, yes, and that is precisely what makes it valuable. Several Turkish writers and intellectuals were held between those high, wave-beaten walls, and their accounts made this jail a place apart in the country's memory. The visit stays with you.
The fortress-prison first, then the lanes between ramparts and wooden houses, and the market to finish. All of it on foot, unhurried, with a fish lunch on the quays somewhere in the middle.
Some sections go back nearly 2,500 years. The city was founded in the seventh century BC by Greek colonists from Miletus, and owes its name to Sinope, an Amazon queen of mythology. You follow the wall in stretches and climb the accessible sections.
Hazelnuts, for which the Black Sea region is the great producer, along with dried fish and local sweets, all piled up in the central market. Hazelnuts travel perfectly and cost a fraction here of what they do elsewhere.
Its residents like to point out that their city regularly ranks among the happiest in Turkey, and the atmosphere bears them out. It is a quiet call, with no spectacular attraction beyond the prison, but with a gentleness that surprises you on the way back aboard.
The Turkish lira, with cash for the market and small shops. Turkish is spoken, and English is not widespread: the Black Sea sees very few cruise passengers. A phone translator and a little patience are more than enough.
June to September. At Turkey's northernmost point the season is short and the climate cooler and damper than on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts. Bring a windbreaker: the peninsula catches wind from both sides.
