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Aerial view of Kars, Turkey, with the hilltop castle walls above the town's houses and domed churches on the open steppe

Turkey

Kars, Turkey — Towns & Travel Guide

Kars is a province of Turkey, an administrative region centred on its provincial capital, the city of Kars, which gives the province its name.

About Kars

Towns & cities in Kars

Pick a town or city — each links to where to stay.

Aerial view of Kars, Turkey, with the hilltop castle walls above the town's houses and domed churches on the open steppeTurkey

Kars

The Castle of Kars rises over the old town of Kars, a high plateau city in Kars Province, Turkey, known for its fortress and the Cathedral of Kars.Where to stay →

About Kars

What is Kars known for?

Kars is known as a province of Turkey named for its capital, the city of Kars. The province takes its identity from that town. Its capital serves as the administrative seat and market hub for the whole of the surrounding region, gathering the province's civic life in one central place.

That town gives the province its name.

Where is Kars?

Kars is an inland province of Turkey, a broad administrative region set within the interior of the country. It covers a wide territory. The province spreads across a large area of land, one of the more extensive provinces by the ground it holds, with its settled heart at the provincial capital.

Its centre is the city of Kars, which anchors the populated core of the region. The province belongs to the temperate interior of Turkey, away from the coasts. Its focus is the town.

The city of Kars gathers the region's administration and market within the wider provincial bounds, while the surrounding territory extends out from the capital across the province. Kars takes its shape as an inland region of Turkey defined by that central town and its administrative reach. A province named for and governed from its capital, it looks to that single town.

What is Kars like?

Kars carries the identity of a Turkish province governed from its namesake capital, the city of Kars. Its life centres on that town. The provincial capital gathers the region's civic institutions, its markets, and its administrative role, giving the province a single focal point across its wider territory.

Turkish is the language of the province, as across the country. The province takes its name and its character from the city at its heart. That town is its centre.

The city of Kars serves as the meeting place of the region's administration and commerce, the point from which the province is run and to which its territory looks. Kars holds together as an administrative region of Turkey defined by this relationship between the capital and its surrounding province. Its identity rests on the central role of that town.

What is the history of Kars?

Kars takes its name from the provincial capital, the city of Kars, the long-established town at the centre of the region. The province formed around this town. Its administrative identity as a province of Turkey rests on the central role of the capital, which has anchored the surrounding territory.

The city of Kars has given the province its name and its focus.

What is the climate of Kars?

Kars lies in the temperate interior of Turkey, an inland province away from the moderating influence of the coasts. Its weather is continental. The interior setting gives the province the seasonal swings of an inland region, with the surrounding territory sharing the climate of the capital at its centre.

The city of Kars sits within this inland province of Turkey.

How do you get to Kars?

Kars is reached through its provincial capital, the city of Kars, the arrival point for the wider region. The capital carries the province's transport links. Roads and rail connect the town to the rest of Turkey, and travellers reach the surrounding province by way of its central city.

From the capital the rest of the province opens out across its territory.

Updated July 2026