Erzurum, Turkey

Nearly 2000m up, its horizons defined by mountains a further 1000m above, and rocked by frequent earthquakes, Erzurum is Turkey's highest and most exposed city, and one of its most devout; some women wear gunny-sack-like çarafs (full-length robes with hoods and veils) tinted the same dun colour as the surrounding steppe, whilst others wear the black chador, a cultural import from nearby Iran. Because of a strategic location astride the main trade routes to Persia, the Caucausus and western Anatolia, its sovereignty has always been contested, and today it's still a major garrison town of over 400,000 people. All told, the combination of history, climate and earthquakes has resulted in a bleak, much-rebuilt place where sunlight can seem wan even in midsummer, and where the landscaped, broad modern boulevards often end abruptly in literally the middle of nowhere.

While it spent the 1960s and 1970s as a transit stop for overlanders on the way to Iran, Afghanistan and India, Erzurum never really made the transition to mass tourism, though it gets some trade in winter thanks to the excellent skiing facilities at Palandöken just to the south. During summer, the city serves as an occasional base and staging point for mountaineering and rafting expeditions bound for the Kaçkar Dağları, but it also deserves a full day in itself to see a compact group of very early Turkish monuments.