Samsung is located approximately halfway along the Turkish Black Sea coast. Throughout history, Samsun has always been a maritime city but only piers served as ports until the 20th century. Although an agreement was made with the British in 1910 to build the city's port, this project could not be realized due to the outbreak of the First World War. Construction only began in 1953, and the port was opened to traffic in 1963, while construction was still ongoing. In 1990 an industrial dock was added to the port. In recent decades, tourism development has also been attempted, but this was hindered by the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 which made navigation in the entire Black Sea dangerous.