[citation needed] While a large community (around 25% of the population) of Christian Pontic Greeks[2] remained throughout the Pontus area (including Trabzon and Kars in northeastern Turkey/the Russian Caucasus) until the 1920s, and in parts of Georgia and Armenia until the 2010s, preserving their own customs and dialect of Greek, the vast majority have since left, mainly to Greece.

A few larger rivers, those cutting back through the Pontic Mountains (Doğu Karadeniz Dağları), have tributaries that flow in broad, elevated basins.

Running from Zonguldak in the west to Rize in the east, the narrow coastal strip widens at several places into fertile, intensely cultivated deltas.

The western part of the Black Sea region, especially the Zonguldak area, is a center of coal mining and heavy industry.

Most of the Black Sea region has a borderline humid subtropical and oceanic (Köppen: Cfa/Cfb) climate; with high and evenly distributed rainfall the year round.

Those who dislike the heat and humidity of the summer in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions of Turkey,[4] escape to the plateaux of the mountains in the Black Sea region which are almost permanently cloudy and receive immense amounts of rain, and are very attractive with rich flora and fauna, forests, crater lakes, waterfalls, rivers, streams, mountain and nature walk, rafting, canoe and winter sports, hunting and fishing, grass skiing, healing water, and local dishes.