Ardahan

Ardahan, a village of about 300 houses in the portion of Turkish Armenia ceded in 1878 to Russia, 35 miles NW. of Kars. Its position gives it strategic importance. Its fortress was dismantled by the Russians in the war of 1854–56; in 1878 the Berlin Congress sanctioned the cession to Russia of Ardahan, which had been captured early in the war. On account of the severity of the climate, the houses of Ardahan are mainly constructed underground.