Giresun was known to the ancient Greeks asChoerades or more prominently asKerasous orCerasus (Ancient Greek:Κερασοῦς), the origin of the modern name.
The name Kerasous consists of the Greek words κερασός (kerasós) "cherry" + -ουντ (a place marker).[3] Thus, the Greek root of the word "cherry", κερασός (kerasós), predates the name of the city,[3] and the ultimate origin of the word cherry (and thus the name of the city) is probably from aPre-Greek substrate, likely ofAnatolian origin, given the intervocalic σ in Κερασοῦς and the apparent cognates of it found in other languages of the region.[3] According toPliny, thecherry was first exported from Cerasus to Europe inRoman times byLucullus.[4]
Another theory suggests that Kerasous comes from κέρας (keras) "horn" + -ουντ (a place marker), due to the prominent horn-shaped peninsula that the city is situated on (compare with the Greek name for the horn-shapedGolden Horn waterway in Istanbul, Κέρας (Keras) "Horn").[5] The toponym would have later mutated intoKerasunt (sometimes writtenKérasounde orKerassunde), and the word "cherry" (as well as its cognates found in other local languages) was derived from the name of the city itself, rather than the other way around.[5]
Pharnaces I of Pontus renamed the cityPharnacia after himself after he captured the city in 183 BC, and it was called by that name as late as the 2nd century AD. According toA. H. M. Jones, the city officially reverted to its original name, Kerasous, in 64 AD.[6]
The Greek name Kerasous was Turkified into Giresun (Ottoman Turkish:گیرهسون) after Turks gained permanent control of the region in the late 14th century.
Northern end of Gedikkaya crag, located in the eastern part of Giresun city
The surrounding region has rich agriculture, growing most of Turkey's hazelnuts as well as walnuts, cherries, leather and timber, and the port of Giresun has long handled these products. The harbor was enlarged in the 1960s, and the town is still a port and commercial center for the surrounding districts.
Like everywhere else on theBlack Sea coast, it rains (and often snows in winter) and is very humid throughout the year, with a lack of extreme temperatures both in summer and winter. As a result, Giresun and the surrounding countryside are covered with luxuriant flora. Just beyond the city are hazelnut groves, and there are high pastures (yayla) further in the mountains.
Giresun has ahumid subtropical climate (Cfa or Cf) under both theKöppen andTrewartha climate classifications, with warm, humid summers and cool, damp winters. As a part of the very humid southern Black Sea coast, it experiences frequent precipitation throughout the year (mainly due to thelake-effect rain phenomena), with a small peak in rainfall days in spring and fall. Giresun is the cloudiest city in Turkey, as well as one of the cloudiest cities of the temperate latitudes; with annual sunshine of around 1,000 hours, it is more akin to far northwestern Europe.
Snowfall is somewhat common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two, and it can be heavy once it snows.
The water temperature is cool in winter and warm in summer and fluctuates between 8 °C (46 °F) and 24 °C (75 °F) throughout the year.
Climate data for Giresun (1991–2020, extremes 1929–2023)
Giresun city at the beginning of the 20th centuryGreek Catholic Church in Giresun, later converted into a children's libraryPontian Greek athletics team from Giresun (formerly Kerasounta) early 20th centuryOld Municipality Building in Giresun
Giresun was founded circa 180 BC byPharnaces I of Pontus, who sent Greek citizens from Kotyora (modernOrdu) to colonize the area.[12] The name of the city was first cited in the bookAnabasis byXenophon as Kerasus. Historic records reveal that the city was dominated by theMiletians,Persians,Romans,Byzantines and theEmpire of Trebizond. The older parts of the city lie on a peninsula crowned by a ruined Byzantine fortress, sheltering the small natural harbor. Nearby isGiresun Island, calledAretias in ancient times, which is the only majorBlack Sea island in Turkish territory. According to legend, the island was sacred to theAmazons, who had dedicated a temple to the war godAres here. Even today, fertility rites are performed there every May, usually involving the famed boulder named theHamza Stone on the east side of the island, now shrouded as a popular practice but in reality a 4,000-year-old celebration.
During the medieval period, Kerasunt was part of theByzantine Empire and later the second city of theEmpire of Trebizond ruled by the Komnenian dynasty. Alexios II Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond, defeated the Turkmen "Koustoganes" at Kerasunt in September 1302; to secure his victory, Alexios II built a fortress which overlooks the sea.[18] From 1244 onwards, theSeljuk Turks moved into the area, pursued at times by theMongol hordes until in 1461, subsequent to theFall of Constantinople, the whole of this coast was brought within theOttoman Empire by SultanMehmed II. It was briefly occupied by Emirate of Hacıemiroğlu (Emirate ofChalybia) between 1398 and 1400. Local traditions claim that Kerasunt held out for many months after the fall ofTrebizon in 1461, then surrendered on terms that the Christian inhabitants could remain and retain their arms, but were required to maintain a boat for the use of the Turks on a nearby river.[19]
4.2 km east-northeast of Kerasus is a fortified island called Ares (Αρητιας νήσος or Αρεώνησος). According to the poetic account ofApollonius of Rhodes, it was here that the Argonauts encountered both the Amazons and a flock of vicious birds. The Greeks of the island held out against the Ottomans for 7 years after the fall of Trebizond (modernTrabzon) in 1461.
Kerasounta became known by its Turkish name Giresun after 1923.
Historically, Giresun was known forproducing hazelnut. As of 1920, hazelnuts covered 460 square miles of the area.[20]Manganese mines were also in the area, producing 470 tons as of 1901.[21]
The city owns a football teamGiresunspor and a football stadium Çotanak Sport Complex.
Alperen Şengün (25 July 2002) a professional basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA) was born in Giresun.
^abcRobert S. P. Beekes (2010).Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill.ISBN978-90-04-17418-4.As the improved cherry came from the Pontos area (cf. Κερασοῦς "rich in cherries", town on the Pontos), the name is probably Anatolian as well. Given its intervocalic σ, the form must be Anatolian or Pre-Greek. For the suffix, cf. ▶-θíασος, ▶-κάρπασος, which too are of foreign origin. Assyr. karšu has also been adduced. Cf. on ▶κράνον 'cornelian cherry'. Gr. κέρασος, -íα, κεράσιον were borrowed into many languages: Asiatic names of the cherry-tree and the cherry, like Arm. ker̄as, Kurd. ghilas, and in the West, Lat. cerasus, -ium, VLat. ★cerasia, ★ceresia, -ea; from Latin came the Romance and Germanic forms like MoFr. cerise, OHG chirsa > Kirsche. Lit.: Olck in PW 11: 509f. and Hester Lingua 13 (1965): 356.
^Speros Vryonis Jr.,The Decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor: and the process of Islamization from the eleventh through the fifteenth century, (Berkeley: University of California, 1971), p. 449 n. 13
^Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013ISBN978-88-209-9070-1), p. 866
^William Miller,Trebizond: The last Greek Empire of the Byzantine Era: 1204-1461, 1926 (Chicago: Argonaut, 1969), p. 33
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