Erzurum: the ski gateway of eastern Anatolia

Among Turkey's highest cities, Erzurum hosted the Winter Universiade Games and remains a winter sports center of eastern Anatolia.

The center, winter sports gateway of eastern Anatolia, is comfortably explored by taxi or shared minibus.

The Çifte Minareli Medrese, a Seljuk Quranic school with two twin minarets adorned with decorations, remains the symbolic monument of the old city.

Steps away, the Erzurum Citadel, a fortress of Byzantine origin repeatedly rebuilt, dominates the historic center from a rocky hill.

Heading toward the Palandöken resort, the mountain that dominates the city, you reach ski slopes among Turkey's snowiest.

Toward evening, restaurants in the center serve cağ kebab, a specialty of lamb meat roasted horizontally typical of Erzurum's cuisine, different from the better-known vertical kebab.

Erzurum, situated at nearly two thousand metres altitude, ranks among Turkey's highest and coldest inhabited cities, with winters conducive to winter sports on nearby Mount Palandöken, host to international competitions.

The Çifte Minareli Medrese, built in the thirteenth century by the Seljuks, stands as a masterpiece of Anatolian Islamic religious architecture, with geometric carvings adorning both twin minarets.