ERZEROUM, Erzrum, or sometimes Arzeroum, an important town of Turkish Armenia, at the head of an extensive vilayet of the same name, the residence of a pasha, and the seat of an Armenian patriarch and a Greek bishop, as well as the centre of the fourth army corps, and one of the main strategical points on the Turko-Russian frontier. It is situated 6200 feet above the level of the sea on the southern edge of a wide valley, surrounded by mountains of considerable elevation, about 4 miles from the Kara-Su or western branch of the Euphrates, 140 miles S.S.E. of Trebizond. To the east lies the Devi-Boyun, upwards of 8000 feet in height, and to the south-east the Polan·Duken. the latter being the birthplace of a number of small streamlets, which, after meeting in the town, flow N. to the Kara-Su. The streets of the town are for the most part irregular, unpaved, badly drained, filthy, and infested with dogs; and as the building material is mainly a darkgrey volcanic stone cemented with mud, the general appearance is dull and sombre. The roofs, with scarcely an exception, are flat or dome-shaped, and covered with a layer of earth and sward, on which it is no uncommon thing to see a donkey grazing. A considerable proportion, indeed, of the ordinary dwelling-houses are formed by making an extensive quadrangular excavation in the earth, and covering in the whole or a part of the area, so that the roof is almost on a level with the natural surface of the ground. The town is said to contain about thirty khans or caravansaries, about as many mosques, a number of Christian churches, and nineteen public baths; but none of those buildings are of much architectural pretension, except the Armenian cathedral and the Shifteh— two graceful minarets near the citadel, belonging to an ...