Road station

Cordile

bei Akçakale

Cordile, at Akçakale on the Black Sea coast west of Trabzon, most likely takes its name from the Greek word for a young tuna, apt for a sea known for the tuna that spawned in it; another view hears a lizard in it. Arrian knew it as an anchorage, the first landing after rounding the Holy Mountain. It sits on a spit with a naturally sheltered harbour in the lee of the Karadağ range, yet no road led inland and no produce is known, so it may have served as Trebizond's harbour in stormy weather. From 1362 the monastery of Saint Phocas stood here.

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