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25th Winter Universiade

January 27th - February 6th, 2011 - Erzurum, Turkey

Erzurum is one of the biggest and most modern cities in Turkey. Throughout its 6,000 year-history, the city has been a local, economic and political center. Erzurum has acted as host to the world's most important civilizations, such as Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks and Ottomans. In the city, along with the Öflvank and Haho churches, dating back to very old times, there are also works such as Double Minarets, Lala Pasha Mosque. So Erzurum is where two civilizations meet. Erzurum, which was a commercial capital city of a 100,000-square kilometer-field, still continues to be the center of a trading center on the Silk Road.

In terms of area, Erzurum, as the fourth biggest city of Turkey, has a total population of 1,000,000 people, 250,000 of whom are students. With its 1,850 m altitude, it is the highest city of Turkey. The city is an open-air museum with its officially registered 320 immovable cultural landmarks. With its traditional handcrafts (jet embroidering, Bard›z carpets, Erzurum is also the city where the carpet was first woven), rich local cuisine (ca¤ kebap, kadayf dolma, mant›, etc.) and traditional sports (the game of javelin, sleigh, snow volleyball, etc.), the city in one of the important cultural places of the world. Also with its 256 endemic flora and its very rich fauna, it is a center of natural richness.