Tortum

Tortum was a fortified center in the valley of the Tortum Çayı, a tributary of the Çoruh, in the Georgian region of Tao. Its stronghold guarded approaches from Anatolia towards Georgia and passed through the hands of several noble families, including the Panaskerteli and Jaqeli. The sheltered valley produced grapes, pears and peaches, which merchants carried to Erzurum.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the fortress was held in turn by the forces of Timur and Uzun Hasan. Ottoman forces under Ahmed Pasha besieged it with cannon in 1549 and took it after a determined defense. Tortum then became the center of an Ottoman sanjak, and a mosque of Sultan Süleyman was established within the fortress. The surrounding district retained the marks of its Georgian past even as it came under a new government.