Tekirdag

Tekirdag is a city in northwestern Turkey on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara in the region of East Thrace, about 135 kilometers west of Istanbul, seat of Tekirdag Province and Suleymanpasa District. Known in classical antiquity as Bisanthe or Rhaedestus and as Rodoscuk under Ottoman rule before taking its current name under the Turkish Republic, the city dates back some 4,000 years and is mentioned in Xenophon's Anabasis; it was occupied at various times by Russian, Bulgarian and Greek forces between 1829 and 1922. Its urban area held 186,421 residents in 2022, and the city functions as a commercial center with a harbor for agricultural products, best known for its raki and for cherries celebrated in an annual festival each June.