Erzurum to Kars

Today’s plan takes us from Erzurum to Kars and then a side trip to the ancient city of Ani. Our visit to Ani will be in the next post because it was so fantastic and there is lots to say. Here is our map for today:

Yep, we went right up to the Armenian border, which is where you’ll find Ani.

But the drive to Kars was astonishing. Through some of the most amazing canyonlands you’ll ever see. We left Erzurum in the early morning and the snowy mountains that line the valley were just waking up.

We drove east for about 40km before we saw this fortress squatting on top of the promontory that looked out over the entire valley.

This fortress has been there since it was built in the 9th century and the original walls still stand.

An interesting side story is that the great Ottoman poet and satirist Nef’i was born here in 1572. He was famous throughout the empire for his sharp tongue which got him into trouble with the Sultan.

In 1635 he went to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul to present the Sultan with his latest work called “The Arrow of Misfortune”. Just as he entered the palace, a bolt of lightning struck the dome and the Sultan thundered for him to leave and take his evil book with him.

While Nef’i was trying to get the Palace Master (who was African of origin) to write him a pardon, a drop of black ink fell onto the paper. Nef’i the satirist was reported to have said “Sir, your blessed sweat dripped” at which point the Palace Master tore up the pardon and took Nef’i to be executed.

That same day he was strangled with an oiled rope in the palace woodshed after which his body was thrown into the sea. Yikes.

Almost within minutes of seeing the fortress we came around a bend in the road and saw a tourist bus emptying for no apparent reason until we got past it and saw this:

It is believed the bridge dates from 1289 and used to be a strategic crossing of the Aras River.

We knew Turkish roads were pretty decent, we’ve been to Turkey before and many, many foreign drivers report that the roads are good to excellent. We weren’t expecting this, however, in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the country from Istanbul.

For the most part this was the road we drove from Erzurum to Kars. The one exception was a part through a very curvy canyon where the superhighway wasn’t quite ready. It’s because they were busy building this:

Probaby 200 feet off the ground. Most of the scenery looked like this. Here they have built a damn and the resulting lake.

By noon we had arrived in Kars and passed right on thru to Ani. After Ani we returned to Kars to see some examples of Belle Epoque Russian architecture. Kars had been held by the Russians from 1878 to 1920 (when the Treaty of Kars was signed). We saw a couple of examples:

That is the main municipal revenue building. There were others we saw as well.

And one more.

Looming over Kars is the Castle of Kars. It was built in 1153, destroyed in 1386, and then rebuilt again in 1579.

Kars itself dates to at least the 9th century but its earliest history is murky so historians kind of see 888 as the founding date.

Kars has a pretty bloody history filled with war and subterfuge that carried right up through WW2 when the Russians tried to tear it away from Turkey. Thousands of soldiers have died over the last 1000 years in and around Kars.

This place is far away. You have to want to come here. But Ani makes that an easier declsion, which will be the subject of the next post.