Tokat

Tokat Province is a province in northern Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Amasya to the northwest, Yozgat to the southwest, Sivas to the southeast, and Ordu to the northeast. Its capital is Tokat, which lies inland of the middle Black Sea region, 422 kilometers from Ankara.

Surrounded by orchards and gardens, Tokat lies on a plain beneath steep hills that are crowned by a ruined citadel, often identified as the ancient fortress Dazimon. Tokat stands near the site of ancient Comana of Pontus, one of the most important cities of the Pontus district during the Roman period. Tokat rose to prominence after Comana’s decline in Byzantine times. During the 11th–13th century it was an important city of a Turkmen principality and later of the Seljuq Turks. It was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire about 1392. Noteworthy among its landmarks, mostly dating from the Seljuq period, are the blue-tiled Gök (Blue) Medrese, a 13th-century Islamic religious school that houses the local museum, and the Halef Gazi Tekkesi monastery, dating from about 1290.