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CITY GUIDE / 6 discovery ideas

Find a story in
Kars.

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1. History · Merkez

   Tour the ruins of Ani

   Trdat, the architect of Ani Cathedral, also worked on repairs to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. One master's knowledge connects two distant cities. Follow Ani's open visitor route, study the cathedral from outside and photograph a detail of its dressed-stone façade. Record the architectural link in your memory.

   Story and sources →
2. Food · Merkez

   Kars kashar and gruyère tasting

   Taste Kars kashar and gruyère cheese at a genuine producer's farm in Boğatepe village — and photograph it.

3. Nature · Sarıkamış

   Ski among the Scots-pine forests in Sarıkamış

   Ski on slopes that run through the forest, on some of Turkey's driest snow — and photograph it.

4. Nature

   Follow the UNESCO Route: Kars to Gobeklitepe

   Follow the UNESCO route from Kars through Ani, Diyarbakir, Sivas, Divrigi, Nemrut Dag, and Gobeklitepe — and photograph it.

5. Nature

   Birdwatch at Lake Kuyucuk

   A small lake on the eastern flyway with a ringing station on it, so in migration season somebody is usually holding a bird and can tell you where it has come from. Ask. Photograph the reed edge at first light.

6. City discovery

   Follow the Kars Cheese Route

   Gruyère-style wheels have been made up here since Swiss methods arrived in the nineteenth century, and the villages still age them in cellars rather than rooms. Ask for a piece off a wheel that has been down there longest. Photograph the cellar shelf.