Can the Euphrates be accessed from the Black Sea or the Mediterranean Sea?

Answer 1

Orlando Figes, an English historian and the auther of the book "The Crimean War - a History", says that Greek Traders preferred shipments of English manufactured goods to the Persian Gulf and India in the 1840's to go by way of the Mediterreanian Sea, through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea, to the port of Trebizond on the Southern shore in Anatolia, Turkey (Ottoman Empire) and from there down the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. This was to avoid the Suez Canal's high winds and Monsoons and avoid the ruler of Egypt, Mehmet Ali, a French Ally. The connection between Trebizond and the headwaters of the Euphrates was, by all accounts, overland southeast to Erzerum near the headwaters of the Euphrates. A difficulties found in a survey of this route in the 1840's by the British led to its termination with plans for a rail connection from the Med to the Persian Gulf and the rise of Steam ships making the connection to the Persian Gulf and India faster.