a fortified town on the frontier of Asiatic Turkey, in the province of Turkish Armenia, five days' journey from Erzroum, seven from Batoum, two from Gumri, in Russian Armenia; N. Lat. 40. 25., E. Long. 41. 10. Pop. about 2000 families. It lies in a loop of a cognominal river in an amphitheatre of rugged hills of black basalt, and is 4000 feet above the level of the sea. On a precipitous rock overhanging the town on the same side of the river is the old castle, a massive building formerly the only defence of the place. The houses are mostly built of mud, although the surrounding hills furnish excellent stone, which has been turned to account in the better class of dwellings. There are no public buildings of importance, except the baths, four in number, and the mosques, of which there are twenty-four. The streets, like those of most Turkish towns, are narrow and dirty; and the people are squalid in appearance.

There are two suburbs without the walls, which may contain about one-third of the population of the city itself. That suburb known by the name of Oasta Karsi contains a population of about 500 Armenian Christian families, who are the most active traders in the town, and cherish strong Russian sympathies. With the exception of this Armenian quarter, the people are Mussulman Georgians, who have adopted a form of the Turkish language. Since their conversion to Islamism they have become mixed a good deal with Turks and Kurds. The latter people inhabit the mountains to the S.E., while the mountainous region to the N. is inhabited by a branch of the Georgian stock called Laz; the country itself is called Lazistan.

The town has no manufactures, and but little trade of its own; but as it is one of the stations for caravans travelling between Trebizond and Western Persia, it has periodic recurrences of commercial activity. The interest which attaches to Kars arises wholly from the importance of its position as the key of eastern Asia Minor, and from the numerous sieges it has sustained. The castle was founded in 1586 by Amurat III. It was besieged in 1735 by the Persian conqueror Nadir Shah, who, though he utterly annihilated a relieving army of 100,000 Turks, was baffled in his attempts to take the town, and at last compelled to raise the siege. A few years later, the town fell into the hands of semi-independent chieftains, who set the Sultan at defiance. The Porte, however, compromised matters by acknowledging the title of one of these, Selim by name, and ever since his death the governor of the fortress has been nominated by the Sultan. In 1806 the Russians, under General Neswafoff, besieged Kars for the first time, but finding it stronger than they had anticipated, abandoned the attempt after a short blockade. In 1828 they again appeared before its walls, under the command of the celebrated Paskiewitsch, and after an obstinate resistance obtained possession of the town and fort. But the most famous of all its sieges is that of 1855. Under the command of General Williams, an English officer of artillery, assisted by a few Englishmen and Hungarians (among the latter of whom was the patriot Kmetz), the Turkish garrison, about 17,000 strong, with scarcely any cavalry, held out against a Russian army under Muraviell of nearly 40,000, including 10,000 cavalry, for five months, amid incredible hardships. The blockade commenced on the 16th June, and, varied from time to time by skirmishes, and two attempts to gain possession of some detached forts, continued until all the Turkish cavalry was destroyed, and the garrison weakened for want of food, when a general assault was given on the 29th Sept. The Russians had calculated on taking the town by a coup-de-main in the early morning, but were foiled by the vigilance of the garrison. After a desperate engagement, which lasted for seven hours and a half, the Turks were left masters of the field. The Russians acknowledged the loss of 6300 men in this attack. On account of the utter want of cavalry, and the weakness, both physical and numerical, of the Turkish army, the Russians, having retired from the assault, were still able, by means of their numerous and untouched cavalry, to resume the blockade. The garrison was obliged at length to capitulate to their vanquished enemy, after having gone through such frightful sufferings that scarce two-thirds of the original numbers remained, and many of these expired after the surrender, which took place on the 28th Nov. 1855. By the treaty of 1856 Kars was restored to the Turks. There are several good accounts of Kars. The best are Montei's History of Prince Paskiewitsch's Campaigns in Asia Minor; Narrative of the Siege of Kars, 1856, by H. Sandwith, M.D., who was an eye-witness of the whole siege.