Sivas
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Sivas Sebastea |
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| Municipality | |
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 Sivas
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| Coordinates: 39°45′N 37°01′E / 39.750°N 37.017°ECoordinates: 39°45′N 37°01′E / 39.750°N 37.017°E | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Province | Sivas |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Sami Aydın (AKP) |
| Area | |
| • District | 2,768.18 km2 (1,068.80 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 1,285 m (4,216 ft) |
| Population (2012) | |
| • Urban | 312,587 |
| • District | 346,629 |
| • District density | 130/km2 (320/sq mi) |
| Website | www |
Sivas (Armenian: Սեբաստիա; Latin: Sebastia, Sebastea, Sebasteia, Sebaste) is a city in central Turkey and the seat of Sivas Province. According to a 2011 estimate, its urban population is 425,297.
The city, which lies at an elevation of 4,193 feet (1,278 m) in the broad valley of the Kızılırmak river, is a moderately-sized trade center and industrial city, although the economy has traditionally been based on agriculture. Rail repair shops and a thriving manufacturing industry of rugs, bricks, cement, and cotton and woolen textiles form the mainstays of the city's economy. The surrounding region is a cereal-producing area with large deposits of iron ore which are worked at Divriği.
Sivas is also a communications hub for the north-south and east-west trade routes to Iraq and Iran, respectively. With the development of railways, the city gained new economic importance as junction of important rail lines linking the cities of Ankara, Kayseri, Samsun, and Erzurum. The city is linked by air to Istanbul.
The popular name Sebastian derives from the Latin Sebastianus, meaning someone from the city.
Excavations at a mound known as Topraktepe indicate Hittite settlement in the area as early as 2600 BC, though little is known of Sivas' history prior to its emergence in the Roman period. In 64 BC as part of his reorganization of Asia Minor after the Third Mithridatic War, Pompey the Great founded a city on the site called "Megalopolis". Numismatic evidence suggests that Megalopolis changed its name in the last years of the 1st century BC to "Sebaste", which is the feminine form of the Greek name corresponding to Augustus. The name "Sivas" is the Turkish version deriving from the name Sebasteia, as the city was known during the late Roman (Byzantine) empire. Sebasteia became the capital of the province of Armenia Minor under the emperor Diocletian, was a town of some importance in the early history of the Christian Church; in the 4th century it was the home of Saint Blaise and Saint Peter of Sebaste, bishops of the town, and of Eustathius, one of the early founders of monasticism in Asia Minor. It was also the place of martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, also 4th century. Justinian I had a fortified wall around it rebuilt in the 6th century.
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Wikipedia