Kars is located on the Erzurum-Kars part of the Eastern Anatolia of Turkey. It is surrounded by Ardahan on the north, Armenia on the east, Iğdır and Ağrı on the south and Erzurum on the west side.

Plateaus

Kars Plateaus located between the lowlands lined up through stream valleys consists of 51% of the city. There are small plains and depression rivers on some parts of the plateaus which are very large and curvy. Plateaus in Kars lay through the south of Sarıkamış to Arpaçay Valley on the east and to Başgedikler Plains on the north. The parts of the plateau which are on south and east are covered by forests.

Lowlands

The best examples of high lowlands in Turkey are the ones in Kars. Suger beet has taken its place among the significant products with the increase of the importance of irrigation in recent years in the valleys where barley and wheat are cultivated.

Kars plateau is located on a big depression gulley opening through east between Allahuekber Mountains and Sarıkamış-Kars Plateau. Because of elevation and topography, products other than barley and wheat cannot be cultivated on the Kars Plateau. Inadequate irrigation is an important factor for this fact. The surface area of Kars Plateau is 2500 m2 and it is the largest lowland of Eastern Anatolia. The lowland constitutes 19% of the province.

Rivers and Dams

There are numerous major and minor rivers in Kars. Çıldır, Karzak, Aygır, Çenklice rivers are some of them. Apart from these, Erhan river, Turna river, Çenekci river, Kuyucuk river are important rivers in the province. Only artificial river in Kars is Arpaçay Dam River. There are 3 important dams in the province as Çıldır, Arpaçay and Bayburt dams. Çıldır is used for both energy and irrigation, Bayburt (Selim) is used for irrigation and drinking water and Arpaçay is used only for irrigation.

Aygır River

It is a small lava set river which has an area for 4 km2 on Kars-Göle route. The deepest spot is 30 m and it has soft water. This river located on the west side of Susuz is fed by water of snow melted around the river and the resources within itself. It is called as Aygır (Stud Horse) because of the noises sound like whinnying of horses which actually results from the melting of the water frozen during winter in summer and the air within the river which is kicked back.

Streams

Territories of Kars are located on the main basin of The Caspian Sea. Great majority of the water coming out of the territories of the proince are carried into the Caspian Sea through Aras River. The most important two streams of the province are Arpaçay and Kars small stream.

Climate

Kars is located on the coldest region of the Eastern Anatolia. Eastern Anatolian highland climate is seen in the province. Winter mounts are long and stiff while summer months are moderate, actually cool in Kars. Kars is one of the places where the cold is really cold and long. Main reasons of this are that the high mountain lines are separate from the moderating effect of the seas, the heights is extremely high, cold and heavy air mass (Siberia high pressure center) placed on the Big Asian Land Mass can penetrate into such areas during winter.

Vegetation

The vegetation of Kars is shaped by the elevation and climate. This high plateu located on the north of Eastern Anatolia is within the natural forest actually. The moisture level which had a primary impact on the creation of natural forest boundary is higher in the province compared to the other parts of Eastern Anatolia. As parallel with the moisture level, the natural lower boundary of forests is increasing. Forest lower boundary in Kars begins in 1800-1900mt.