By Alexander Pushkin

"I rode along a wide valley, surrounded by hills. Soon I saw Kars, standing out white on one of them. My Turk kept pointing it out to me, repeating '"Kars, Kars!'" and put his horse into a gallop. I followed him tormented by anxiety: it was in Kars that my fate would be decided."

Alexander Pushkin, "A Journey to Arzrum", 1829