In pictures: Early snowfall gives Turkey’s Kars a fairytale look

The eastern border city has been known for its popular long Eastern Express railway trips from the capital Ankara to Kars.

By Murat Sofuoglu
Sunny days are almost over in much of Turkey. But snowfall, which began in the eastern province of Kars, is as lovely as summer sun, bringing a wind of change into people’s emotions. / AA

Turkey's eastern border city of Kars reminds many book enthusiasts of Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk's book Snow and its first paragraph, which reads: "The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver. If this were the beginning of a poem, he would have called the thing he felt inside him the silence of snow." 

Pamuk's poetic description is befitting to the landscape of Kars, a vast expanse of land ringed by low lying hills. 

Come November, the temperatures in Kars fall to below 0 degrees Celsius, and this year a heavy yet early snowfall has carpeted the city, as if a white blanket has been wrapped around it. 

Here are some pictures from Kars that are soothing to the eyes.