Kars & Ani

About — Kars & Ani

Kars is a high-plateau city in north-eastern Türkiye, at around 1,750 metres, known for its snowy winters and its cheese. Kars Harakani Airport (KSY) is about 2 hours by air from Istanbul. In winter many travellers come instead on the Eastern Express from Ankara, a journey of about a day in sleeper compartments; the Touristic Eastern Express adds sightseeing stops along the way. Stay in the city centre: two days are enough for Kars and Ani, plus Lake Çıldır in winter.

The ruins of Ani, 45 km east of the city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, spread across a wide, open plateau above a river gorge; allow two to three hours to walk among the walls, churches and the Ebu'l-Menuçehr Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Anatolia. In town, Kars Castle on its hill gives views over the rooftops, and below it stands the Kümbet Mosque, the former Church of the Apostles, with its conical dome. The centre is lined with Baltic-style stone buildings, best seen on a slow walk. About 1 hour 15 minutes to the north, Lake Çıldır freezes in winter: horse-drawn sledges glide across the ice and fishermen pull fish through holes, which lakeside restaurants then fry. Local shops sell Kars gravyer and kaşar cheese, and goose is the classic winter dish.

Family tips: winters are very cold, with nights that can fall below −20°C, so pack thermal layers, boots, gloves and hats; summers are mild and sunny, and Ani has no shade. Halal food is easy to find; try goose with bulgur pilaf in winter, and take the cheese home as a gift. There are mosques throughout the city. Ani and Çıldır lie outside the city, so a private vehicle with driver is the comfortable way to visit; on the train, bring snacks, games and warm slippers. Kars combines well with Erzurum, about 3 hours away by road.

City Guide — Kars & Ani

Kars is a city in north-east Türkiye and the capital of Kars Province. The Castle of Kars (Kars Kalesi), also known as the Citadel, sits at the top of a rocky hill overlooking Kars; it probably took on its present form during the thirteenth century, and Sultan Murad III probably reconstructed much of the city walls at the close of the sixteenth century during the war with Persia. By the nineteenth century the citadel had lost most of its defensive purpose and a series of outer fortresses and defensive works were constructed to encircle Kars; this new defensive system proved particularly notable during the Siege of Kars in 1855. Below the castle is the Church of the Apostles, built in the 930s: it has a tetraconch plan (a square with four semicircular apses) surmounted by a spherical dome on a cylindrical drum, whose exterior contains bas-relief depictions of twelve figures usually interpreted as the Twelve Apostles. The church was converted to a mosque in 1579, then into a Russian Orthodox church in the 1880s, was used as a warehouse from the 1930s, housed a small museum from 1963 until the late 1970s and was converted into a mosque again in 1998. The Tashkopru (Stone Bridge) over the Kars river was built in 1725, and close to the bridge are three old bath-houses. As a settlement at the juncture of Turkish, Georgian, Kurdish, Russian and Armenian cultures, the buildings of Kars come in a variety of architectural styles; Orhan Pamuk, in the novel Snow, which takes place in Kars, makes repeated references to "the Russian houses", built "in a Baltic style", whose like cannot be seen anywhere else in Türkiye. Kars is the setting of the novel Kar (Snow) by Orhan Pamuk, and Modest Mussorgsky composed the march "The Capture of Kars" to commemorate Russia's victory there. The ruins of Ani, 45 km from the city, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.