Erzurum

About Erzurum

Erzurum is a city in eastern Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of ancient Theodosiopolis.

The city uses the double-headed eagle as its coat-of-arms, a motif that has been a common symbol throughout Anatolia since the Bronze Age.

Erzurum has winter sports facilities, hosted the 2011 Winter Universiade, and the 2023 Winter Deaflympics (in March 2024).

The city was originally known in Armenian as Karno K'aghak' (Armenian: Կարնոյ քաղաք), meaning city of Karin, to distinguish it from the district of Karin (Կարին). It is presumed its name was derived from a local tribe called the Karenitis. An alternate theory contends that a local princely family, the Kamsarakans, the Armenian off-shoot of the Iranian Kārin Pahlav family, lent its name to the locale that eventually became the city.

During Roman times, Erzurum was named Theodosiopolis (Latin: Theodosiopolis, Greek: Θεοδοσιούπολις). On the Tabula Peutingeriana it is called Autisparate. After the Arab conquest of Armenia in the...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.