Ardahan

Ardahan stands beside the upper Kura River on a high plain surrounded by mountains. Its fortress guarded a road junction between Akhaltsikhe and the route from Kars to Erzurum, in a region known to Georgians as Artaani. The walls of the castle were rebuilt on several occasions, reflecting the long contest for this frontier between Georgian and neighboring rulers.

Ardahan formed part of the Georgian principality of Samtskhe before the Ottoman conquest of the sixteenth century. The Peace of Amasya in 1555 confirmed Ottoman possession of western Samtskhe, and Ardahan became the center of a sanjak. Its position remained valuable in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, when armies moving between the fortified towns of the borderlands had to contend with the high plateau and its severe winters.