Tulcea
The city of Tulcea, laid out on seven hills like Rome, has been an important harbor since ancient times. Founded in the 7th century BC by the Dacians, Aegyssus, as the city was known in antiquity, was conquered by the Romans who rebuilt it after their plans, their technique and architectural vision. Aegussyus was first mentioned in the documents of Diodorus of Sicily (3rd century BC) and later, in the works of the Latin poet, Ovid, who referred to it in Ex Ponto, attesting that the name traces its origin back to its founder, a Dacian named Carpyus Aegyssus.
The town was successively under Byzantine (5th - 7th century), Genoese (10th - 13th century) and Ottoman rule before finally being reunited with Romania in 1878.
Some of the highlights include St. Nicholas' Church (1865), the Azzizie Mosque (1924), the Danube Delta History Museum, the Art Museum, and the History and Archeology Museum. The local Lipovani Russian and Turkish minorities lend the city a multi-ethnic flavor.
Tulcea city, the capital city of Tulcea county is also named "the Gate of the Danube Delta". Here the Danube River dividies in three branches creating the magic land of a delta.
Tulcea is an ancient city, founded in the 7th century BC by Greeks from Miletus. The Romans called it Aegissus.
Now Tulcea is a modern town, with a fine downtown and an elegant promenade on the bank of the Danube. The population which numbers 100,000 inhabitants, is a mixture of nationalities where, besides romanians, there are a lot of minorities (among which russians, muslims, greeks, etc.).
Parks and rich flora give the town and its surroundings a wonderful look visibily.
It is a developed industrial centre, but its main role is concerning the Danube Delta, and its Delta Museum.
Tulcea is an important inland port, accessible from the Black Sea via the main Danube channels, and it is a centre for fishing and tourism along the smaller delta channels.
The Tulcea Harbour complex is situated on the right bank of the Danube, between km 73,5 and km 70,0 along the sea-wall town and comprise the Industrial Port and Commercial Port. The Commercial Port of Tulcea is destined also for passengers traffic and serves entirely the Danube Delta Zone.
The Industrial Port in Tulcea is located at km 73,5 on the Danube being built starting with 1974 in order to provide the necessary raw materials for the metallurgical plants in Tulcea.
Tulcea County is a contrasting land: is it home to the youngest European territory, the Danube Delta, which sits alongside Europe’s oldest mountains, the Dobrudja range.
The relief of the county is delimited by Danube in the north, Hora Colnic in the east, Somova Lake in the west and in the south, by a line which dovetails with the balance between the pouring valley which goes straight into the Danube River, crossing the city and the valleys oriented towards south.
The climate in this area is temperate continental, characterized by prevailing the clear sky, dry, warm temperature, as a result of the becoming continental the air masses. In the winter can be felt the invasions of arctic air (from north) and continental air (from east), making low temperatures.
The maximum temperature reached 39, 7” C and the minimum lowered to – 26, 8” C. The medium rainfalls vary between 350-500ml/mp/year and they have a pouring feature. The Danube’s debits, in Tulcea county area are 5.000-6.0000mc/s medium, with 2.000 cm/s minimums and 15.000-16.000 cm/s maximums
The Danube Delta is the most important protected wetland area in Europe and, from a biodiversity standpoint, is the fourth richest in fauna diversity in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef, the Galapagos Islands and the Amazon Rainforest).