Kars fortress

Kars is a surprisingly Russian/Caucasian (more about that later!) town, in the far north-east corner of Turkey. The fortress towers over the town and is said to be the strategic key to eastern Turkey.






We just avoided a thunder-shower while climbing the hill to the fortress. Kars and the surrounding region had many fantastic monuments and the feeling of being at the historic crossroads between Persian/Russian/Turkish was very strong, as was the presence of local lords, only nominally dependent on either of these three historic empires.