ERZERUM', or ERZROL'31', properly Erserum, a strongly fortified t. in Turkish Armenia, in lat. 39° 55' n., and long. 41° 20' e., not far from the northern source of the Euphrates. It is situated in a high, but tolerably well cultivated plain; its site being 6,200 ft. above the level of the sea. The climate is cold in winter, but dry in summer. E. is the residence of an English, a Russian, and a French consul; and its pop. is esti mated at 40,000, consisting of 30,000 Turks, 8,000 Armenians, and 2,000 Persians, who carry on a brisk trade, and have thus attained to a degree of prosperity unusual in the east. The copper and iron wares of E. have acquired a wide celebrity. Situated at the junction of the important highways leading from Trebizond, Transcaucasia, Persia, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia, E. forms an entrepot of commerce between Europe on the one hand, and the interior of Asia, and particularly Persia, on the other. The streets, the houses of which are built chiefly of volcanic stone cemented with mud, are narrow, crooked, and filthy; and ruins of fortifications and of buildings formerly magnificent, everywhere meet the eye. The town consists of the fortress, strictly so called, and four suburbs. The fortress, which is inclosed by a high wall, has, on the w., a citadel called Ijkaleh, with many curious monuments, and a mosque of Christian origin. The fortress also contains 15 mosques, the residence of the chief magistrate, some caravanseras, and a few elegant houses belonging to the higher order of officials and Mohammedan merchants. The suburbs boast 24 mosques, several Armenian churches, and a number of large bazaars and caravanseras. E. imports shawls, silk goods, cotton, tobacco, rice, indigo, etc. ; and exports corn, sheep, and cattle, horses, mules, and gall-nuts. The principal trades carried on are tanning, dyeing morocco, and blacksmiths' and coppersmiths' work. But since Russian Transcaucasia has pro vided a safe trade-route to Persia, the prosperity of E. has greatly suffered. E. is a very ancient town. Its Armenian name was Garin Xhalak1. Near it stood the old Syro-Armenian town of Arsen. When the Seljuks captured this place. the inhabitants
fled to a fortress at E., which the Seljuks accordingly called Arsen-er-Rum, i.e., Arsen of the Romans (or Byzantines), whence the modern Erzerum. In 1201, it fell into the hands of the Seljuks; of the Mongols in 1242; and finally, in 1517, into those of the Turks. It still, however, continued to be the most important city in the country. and at the commencement of the 19th c. had a pop. of 100,000 inhabitants. In the war of 1829, between the Turks and Russians, the taking of E. by the latter decided the cam paign in Asia. E. was an important military center during the war of 1877-78, and much hard fighting was done in its neighborhood. In Dec., 1877, the Russians closed round the city, already hard pressed, and reduced its defenders to the utmost distress: in Feb., 1878, it was surrendered to Russia. The Russians held it till Oct., 1878, when it was given up to the Turks.
(" Ore Mountains"), the name given to the chain of mountains, rich in metals, stretching in a south-westerly direction, on the confines of Saxony and Bohemia, from the valley of the Elbe to the Fichtelgebirge, in long. 12° 20' e. In the s., it rises to a height of from 2,000 to 2,500 ft., forming a steep wall of rock ; in the west, it forms broad, slaty plateaus, and gradually slopes down towards the Saxon side to the level districts of Altenburg and Leipsic. In consequence of this formation, the streams flowing southward arc small, while the n. side of the chain, which is well wooded, presents a series of romantic, and occasionally fertile and thickly peopled val leys, watered by the Mulde, the Pleisse, and their numerous tributaries. The town of Gottesgabe, the site of which is the highest in Germany, is situated towards the s. of the E. range, in long. 12° 54' e., at an elevation or 3,102 feet. The Keilberg, the highest point of the range, is 3,802 ft. above the level of the sea. The E. is chiefly of the gneiss granite formation, in which most of the metal strata are to be found. Porphyry and basalt likewise appear.