2-913-675 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The City of Erzeroom, in Asiatic Turkey, 1854. '...Erzeroom [Erzurum, in Anatolia] is commanded by a citadel, surrounded by a double wall; but the fortress is overlooked by adjoining hills. It is of no great strength, having been built before the invention of artillery...From amidst the citadel rises a massive brick tower, called the Tepsee minare, crowned by a wooden roof of two stories; the upper one being smaller, like in a pagoda...There are other buildings...Several of these are so strongly cemented, that, although in ruins, the hewn stones forming the roofs, are in some places held suspended in the air solely through the excellence of the mortar...Erzeroom was once much more populous. At the close of the war between Russia and Turkey in 1829, a large number of Armenian families were either forcibly obliged, or were enticed by deceptive promises, to migrate from Erzeroom...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.