Erzurum

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 seventh century, the city was known to the Arabs as Kālīkalā (adopted from the original Armenian name Karno K'aghak'). It received its present name after its conquest by the Seljuk Turks following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. …

The surroundings of Erzurum at the Urartian period presumably belonged to Diauehi. Later, Erzurum existed under the Armenian name of Karin. During the reigns of the Artaxiad and Arsacid kings of Armenia, Karin served as the capital of the eponymous canton of Karin, in the province Bardzr Hayk' (Upper Armenia). After the partition of Armenia between the Eastern Roman Empire and Sassanid Persia in 387 AD, the city passed into the hands of the Romans who fortified the city and renamed it Theodosiopolis, after Emperor Theodosius I. As the chief military stronghold along the eastern border of the empire, Theodosiopolis held a highly important strategic location and was fiercely contested in wars between the Byzantines and Persians. Emperors Anastasius I and Justinian I both refortified the city and built new defenses during their reigns. …

Erzurum has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfb, Trewartha climate classification: Dcbc) with very cold, snowy winters and warm, dry summers. The average maximum daily temperature during August is around 28 °C (82 °F). The highest recorded temperature is 36.5 °C (97.7 °F), on 31 July 2000. January is the coldest month, with an average minimum daily temperature around −16 °C (3 °F). The coldest recorded temperature is −37.2 °C (−35.0 °F) on 28 December 2002. Snow cover is frequent in winter, but the dry nature of the climate usually prevents large accumulation. Winter temperatures in this city are exceptionally cold for their latitude, being more comparable to Russia than to somewhere in the Middle East.