Though it's raised just a few metres above the surrounding city centre, Erzurum's castle site nonetheless offers panoramic views of the mountains and townscape. The views are even better if you pay the entry fee and climb the 12th-century minaret, though there's precious little else to see within the sturdy walls.
The minaret was transformed into a clock tower in the 19th century and the original made-in-Croydon mechanism still works. Getting to the top involves climbing 67 uneven steps in a spiral stone staircase then a steep ladder.
The castle is just one part of an original citadel that was originally erected by a general of Byzantine emperor Theodosius in the 5th century, perhaps on the site of an earlier Urartu fortification. Subsequently damaged and repaired numerous times, the site is undergoing a very major facelift: the interior is one big archaeological site, outlying structures are under reconstruction and, across a trio of roads to the east, a secondary area of former citadel has been cleared of housing though as yet there's nothing to see there.
