Rize: Guide

Rize (რიზე, ) is a town in the north-eastern part of Turkey and the capital of [[Rize Province. The ancient name of the city was Rhizaeum.

Features

The city lies on wooded hills stretching down to the sea, with its commercial section on the narrow strip of flat land around a small bay. Rize enjoys a mild climate and luxuriant vegetation. It is linked by road with Trabzon (41 miles west), Hopa (55 miles east, near the Georgia frontier), and Erzurum (south) and by ship with Istanbul.

Rize is a center for processing and shipping the tea grown in the surrounding area. The culture tea was introduced in the region in the 1940's and 1950's, changing the region's destiny, which was a constant cradle of immigration till then. The city has a tea research institute founded in 1958 and tea gardens are the main sight in the town's panaromic view. Tea and Kiwifruit plants are also located in various places in the town. The secondary activity is fishing.

Notable persons from Rize

Ex-Prime Minister of Turkey|prime minister of Turkey, Mr. Mesut Yılmaz was born and raised in Rize, whereas the current Prime Minister of Turkey|Turkish prime minister, although he was born in the popular Kasımpaşa district of İstanbul, has both parents who are natives of Rize and spent his childhood in the city himself. He is therefore closely attached to and associated with Rize. A previously notable political figure from Rize was Ahmet Tevfik İleri, a Hamsheni born in a village of Hemşin, who was a Deputy Prime Minister and before that, a Minister of Education in Turkey within successive Adnan Menderes governments between 1950-1960.

Population figures

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See also