[4] Sinope issued its own coinage, founded colonies, and gave its name to a red earth pigment called sinopia, which was mined in Cappadocia for use throughout the ancient world.

[5] Some scholars have dated the earliest Greek colonization of Sinope to the 7th c. BC, while others have proposed an earlier date in the 8th c. While literary evidence exists supporting earlier settlement, archaeological evidence has been found of Greek settlement around the Black Sea region beginning in the late 7th century.

[6][7] Sinope was strategically located among the trade routes that were developing on the southern Coast of the Black Sea, but remained relatively isolated from other inland communities until the 4th century BC.

[9] The Persian Achaemenid Empire's northward expansion in the 4th century disrupted Sinope's control over its eastern colonies, including Trapezus (present day Trabzon).

[10][11] There is archaeological evidence of increased economic activity between the port city of Sinope and the surrounding inland areas during between 4th and 1st c. BC.

Sinope appears to have maintained its independence from the dominion of Alexander the Great, and with the help of Rhodes turned back an assault led by Mithridates II of Pontus in 220 BC.

Mithradates Eupator was born and buried at Sinope, and it was the birthplace of Diogenes, of Diphilus, poet and actor of the New Attic comedy, of the historian Baton, and of the Christian heretic of the 2nd century AD, Marcion.

Its history in the early Byzantine period is obscure, except for isolated events: it was used by Justinian II as a base from which to reconnoitre Cherson, participated in the rebellion of the Armeniac Theme in 793, was the site of Theophobos' proclamation as emperor by his Khurramite troops in 838, and suffered its only attack by the Arabs in 858.

[12] In 1081, the city was captured by the Seljuk Turks, who found there a sizeable treasury, but Sinope was soon recovered by Alexios I Komnenos, ushering a period of prosperity under the Komnenian dynasty.

During his march on Trebizond, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II overawed Ismail, the emir of Sinop, and forced him to surrender the city without a fight.

Mehmet took possession in late June 1461, exiling Ismail to Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv) in northern Thrace.

"[15] In 1614, Sinop was targeted by Cossack raiders and extensively looted and burned in an event which shocked Ottoman contemporaries.

Explorer Robert Ballard discovered an ancient ship wreck north west of Sinop in the Black Sea and was shown on National Geographic.

Greek coins featuring an eagle holding a dolphin or marine animal in its talons have been found in Sinope, Istria and Olbia.

[19] Coins of the "Sinope type" continued to be issued by Persians under Achaemenid rule in the 4th century BC.

Snowfall is occasional December to March, sometimes lasting a week or two.As of 1920, Sinop was producing embroidered cotton cloth.

[27] Serapeum is a ruined temple dedicated to the combined Hellenistic-Ancient Egyptian deity Serapis, situated in the southwestern corner in the yard of Sinop Archaeological Museum.