The distance between Pazar district and Rize city center is 37 km. The distance can be completed with an average of 40 minutes of vehicle travel. Pazar is a strip of
Black Sea coast with high mountains running parallel to the coast inland. This coast has a mild climate with warm summers (22 °C in August) and cool winters (7 °C in January, it rarely snows on the coast), but very wet and humid, apart from the early summer (April–May–June) it rains heavily year round, with an average of 50 sunny days per year. The wind off the
Black Sea is cold in autumn, warm and wet in summer. With all this rainfall the area is very green, and even more water is brought to the area by the many streams bringing rainwater and snowmelt down from the
Black Sea mountains, including the
Pazar River itself. This is a hilly district and the main economic activity is tea growing, plus some fishing, trade and light industry (tea processing) in the town of Pazar. Tea was first planted here in 1944 and there are now three factories in Pazar for processing the crop. 65% of arable land in Pazar is used for growing tea. Before tea was planted, citrus fruits and apples were grown here but this has mostly ceased now, apart from trees in family gardens, where people grow vegetables and keep poultry. There are small areas of tobacco, corn, potatoes and beans. Pazar has plenty of grazing land, including summer grazing in the high mountain pastures (
yayla in Turkish) further up the
Fırtına River. At even higher altitudes efforts are being made to plant trees but it is hard to put roads through and manage a forest in these steep, high mountains. Today Pazar is a market town, and the centre of the local tea trade. Fishing was once a major activity and Pazar still has a fleet of small fishing boats although this is in decline as the Black Sea becomes polluted and the traditional
anchovies,
flathead mullet,
red mullet and other species are all in decline. Until tea was planted these districts at the far end of Turkey were all impoverished, losing generation after generation as migrant workers in Europe or Istanbul. Life is still a struggle and people still leave although now many return for the tea harvest in summer. Local handicrafts include basket-weaving and the hand-woven linen
Rize bezi. As in much of rural Turkey, women traditionally cover their heads, partly out tradition, partly from practical necessity as they are outside in the wind and rain.
Climate Pazar has an
humid subtropical climate (
Köppen:
Cfa). The climate in this area is characterized by mild temperatures and an abundance of precipitation, especially during fall. {{Weather box | width = auto | collapsed = yes | metric first = yes | single line = yes | location = Pazar (1991–2020) | Jan high C = 10.1 | Feb high C = 10.3 | Mar high C = 12.2 | Apr high C = 15.4 | May high C = 19.4 | Jun high C = 23.5 | Jul high C = 25.8 | Aug high C = 26.6 | Sep high C = 24.0 | Oct high C = 20.3 | Nov high C = 15.7 | Dec high C = 12.3 | year high C = 18.0 | Jan mean C = 6.1 | Feb mean C = 6.3 | Mar mean C = 8.2 | Apr mean C = 11.3 | May mean C = 15.6 | Jun mean C = 19.8 | Jul mean C = 22.3 | Aug mean C = 22.9 | Sep mean C = 19.8 | Oct mean C = 16.0 | Nov mean C = 11.1 | Dec mean C = 8.0 | year mean C = 14.0 | Jan low C = 3.2 | Feb low C = 3.2 | Mar low C = 4.8 | Apr low C = 7.8 | May low C = 12.0 | Jun low C = 16.1 | Jul low C = 19.0 | Aug low C = 19.7 | Sep low C = 16.3 | Oct low C = 12.7 | Nov low C = 7.9 | Dec low C = 5.0 | year low C = 10.7 | precipitation colour = green | Jan precipitation mm = 176.36 | Feb precipitation mm = 149.32 | Mar precipitation mm = 128.73 | Apr precipitation mm = 79.31 | May precipitation mm = 83.37 | Jun precipitation mm = 130.92 | Jul precipitation mm = 145.65 | Aug precipitation mm = 187.33 | Sep precipitation mm = 261.26 | Oct precipitation mm = 284.1 | Nov precipitation mm = 251.19 | Dec precipitation mm = 236.77 | year precipitation mm = 2114.31 | unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm | Jan precipitation days = 12.6 | Feb precipitation days = 12.4 | Mar precipitation days = 12.6 | Apr precipitation days = 10.0 | May precipitation days = 9.3 | Jun precipitation days = 10.2 | Jul precipitation days = 9.7 | Aug precipitation days = 9.9 | Sep precipitation days = 11.1 | Oct precipitation days = 12.4 | Nov precipitation days = 11.0 | Dec precipitation days = 12.3 | year precipitation days = 133.5 | Jan humidity = 71.1 | Feb humidity = 70.8 | Mar humidity = 71.3 | Apr humidity = 73.3 | May humidity = 76.1 | Jun humidity = 76.7 | Jul humidity = 78.0 | Aug humidity = 78.6 | Sep humidity = 77.6 | Oct humidity = 77.9 | Nov humidity = 72.7 | Dec humidity = 70.6 | year humidity = 74.5 | source =
NOAA ==History==