Erzurum is an ancient city located on a high mountain plateau in eastern Turkey. It originated from the Byzantine fortress of Theodosiopolis. The city's location on the route from Persia to the Black Sea favoured its development. Throughout history, the city has been ruled Byzantines, Seljuk Turks, Armenians, and Arabs.
The oldest structure of Erzurum is a partially preserved fortress, built by Theodosius in the fifth century. It was this fortress that was captured by the Russians during the during the Russo-Turkish wars, and it was here that Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin visited, after which he wrote one of the first traveller's diaries in literature: "Journey to Erzurum".
The fortress of Erzurum, which has a passage on the top of the wall, stands guard in the centre of the Old City on a hill. It was renovated in 1555 by Suleiman Suleiman the Great and was rebuilt a couple more times at different times. Inside the fortress walls stands a small twelfth-century mosque with three separate minarets and a a conical roof. A gallery was added to the minaret in the nineteenth century, in the Neo-Baroque style. This minaret later became known as Saat Kulesi, which translates as "clock tower" and can be climbed if desired. The clock on the tower was donated by Queen Victoria.
There are moats running round the fortress. The gates are of iron, double; they are crossed by bridges; between the two gates are ten cannon (bal-emez). From the side of the Tebriz gate there was only one row of walls, as high as the gate itself, connecting with the fortress. They were very strong and well fortified (covered with cannon, "like a hedgehog").
Outside there is a high, towering above the fortress and pointing to the sky, which is like a stone minaret. This tower is covered with timber and is known as Kesik-kule. Ten beautiful cannons (sarahi) have been preserved in it, which in former times prevented even birds from approaching the plains stretching from the fortress in all directions. plains stretching from the fortress in all directions, not even a bird.
There were also two thousand eighty loopholes in the fortress. All the loopholes and battlements had special embrasures. In all, inside the citadel there were about one thousand seven hundred houses. All of them were of old construction and were roofed with clay.
The main system of Erzerum fortifications are the rugged mountains, which are very skilfully equipped with powerful fortifications. The fortification wall is a stone faced pile of stones, bonded with mortar. The bas-relief of the fortress is a reminder of its heroic past.
The fortress changed hands many times, each new conqueror rebuilding the walls destroyed by the assault, so the exact date of the current construction is unknown.
In the last couple of hundred years, the fortress of Erzurum has more often than not had to experience the the strength and power of the Russian armies. Erzurum has been taken three times by Russian armies. The first capture of the Erzurum fortress was realised in 1829 by general Ivan Paskevich, who had vast military experience: participation in the Borodino and many and many other battles with Napoleon's army. General Paskevich, on the eve of the storming of Erzurum, brilliantly defeated the Turkish troops. The city on this occasion, surrendered practically without a without a fight.
The second attempt to capture Erzurum by the Russians was made in October 1878 October 1878. The Turks this time organised a very good defence of the fortress, so that General Geyman could not take it from the start. Erzurum was only handed over to Russia as a result of an armistice signed in 1879. And for the third time the Russians conquered Erzurum Citadel in 1916 during the World War I. However, this conquest was pointless, as the Russian Empire was already a year later ceased to exist.
