Sivas is a major modern conurbation of commerce and industry with a population of about 350,000 but somehow the City Fathers have managed to maintain the old City centre with its Mosques, Madrasahs, Ancient Turkish Baths and more modern civic buildings in a stylish and I think very attractive setting. 

The City is about 4,200 feet above sea level and was originally founded as a Hittite settlement as early as 2,600 BC. In more recent history Pompey the Great founded a Roman city on the site in 64 BC with the modest name of Megalopolis!  In due course Justinian 1 had a fortified wall built around it in the 6th C AD.  In 1174 the City was captured by the Seljuk ruler Kilij Arslan and periodically served as the Seljuk capital along with Konya.  The Ottomans recaptured Sivas after it had been destroyed by Tamerlane in 1400 and much of the outstanding architecture is a legacy of the Seljuk and Ottoman eras.

In more recent times the city played a crucial role in the formation of the Republic of Turkey when Kemel Ataturk was confirmed as the chair of the executive committee of the national resistance at the Silvas Congress in 1919. 

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