Turkey - Page 4

A view over the city of Kars, which was founded by the Russians in the early 1900's. This was taken from a castle which was once sacked by Timurlane. Kars was on a very high plateau, it was still very crisp in May, with snow in a few places. People told me they usually have over a meter of snow on the ground in winter.

The people in Kars were exceptionally friendly, I was never alone, and I never ran out of hospitality. This shop owner and I talked for nearly an hour with his broken English, my 10 or 20 words of Turkish and a lot of hand signals.

Sheep on the train tracks just outside of Kars.

About 40kms from Kars, right on the Armenian border is the ancient site of Ani. It was once a powerful trading city, with grand city walls, Cathedrals, Mosques and temples built over the ages. It had sewers, water supply and street lighting around the 12th century. It's in a most gorgeous setting, high up on a fresh green mountain plain, surrounded by snow-capped peaks in the distance.

A crumbling gate in the city walls, Ani.

Half a Church, Ani. This is one of my favourite pictures from the trip.

We were asked not to take any pictures looking towards Armenia, the situation between these two countries can be tense at times, and there were quite a few soldiers in the area (they were very friendly though, and let us use their binoculars to spy on the Armenian soldiers across the valley). Armenia is on the right side of the river, Turkey on the left. The remains of one of the bridges of Ani is in the foreground.