Road to Erzurum

We started our day in the Black Sea coast town of Trabzon. After fruitlessly looking for an ATM (hard!) we blew out of town and headed to the Sumela Monastery in the mountains.

After a 45 minute drive we arrived at the gate to the monastery where an incredibly kind guard told us the monastery was closed. But if we wanted to get close for a distant picture there was a TL10 fee per person, cash only. Having failed at our ATM mission we had no cash. After a minute of hand gestures he kindly waved us on and said to drive another 4 kilometers to the parking lot and then take the shuttle bus.

When we arrived at the parking lot, it was closed off and there were no cars and no shuttle bus. So we were foiled in our efforts to catch a glimpse of the monastery. It would have looked like this:

Very disappointing. So we turned around and began our journey across the mountains to Erzurum. Today’s trip looks like this:

The mountains along the Black Sea coast rise to over 12,000 feet and historically acted as a barrier to conquering hordes. Today there are paved highways complete with tunnels bored through the most difficult sections of the drive. About a dozen of them – so many that we lost count!

All of them were double tunnels – two lanes in one direction in each tunnel. When you weren’t in a tunnel you got a view like this.

So beautiful! Once you reach the highest point in the mountains and start to descend, the landscape turns decidely drier. The mountains shield the interior from the drenching rains from the Black Sea. But the landscape remains beautiful.

The drive really was captivating.

On the other side it started to look like this.

And then a look back at the mountains we had just crossed.

Once back in flat land we were close to Erzurum. It is a small city of about 350,000 that sits at an elevation of about 6,200 feet. So it’s still quite high up, and there are ski slopes just outside of town.

Erzurum dates back to Roman times and at points in its history was of some importance. Not much has survived from those times but we did stop in to see the Twin Minaret Madrasa.

It is an Islamic school that dates to 1265 and is known for the ornate minarets you see here.

Next door are the Three Tombs of various Sultans that date to the 13th century as well.

If you’re a military historian you’ll recognize Erzurum as the most southeastern base for NATO during the Cold War. It was code named “The Rock”.

We are staying the nighr at a ski lodge on one of the slopes. There is some snow at the higher elevations just a bit up the road but it is not yet the season to welcome wealthy Istanbulli skiers.

Tomorrow we head to Kars and Ani for what most people say is an incredible experience.