BAYAZID, or BAJAZET  , a border fortress of Asiatic Turkey, chief town of a sanjak of the Erzerum vilayet, situated close to the frontiers of Russia and Persia, and looking across a marshy plain to the great cone of Ararat, at a general altitude of 6000 ft . It occupies a site of great antiquity, as the cuneiform inscriptions on the neighbouring rocks testify; it stands on the site of the old Armenian town of Pakovan . It is picturesquely situated in an amphitheatre of sharp, rocky hills . The great trade route from Trebizond by Erzerum into N.W . Persia crosses the frontier at Kizil Dize a few miles to the south and does not enter the town . A knoll above the town is occupied by the half-ruined fort or palace of former governors, built for Mahmud Pasha by a Persian architect and considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Turkey . It contains two churches and a monastery, the Kasa Kilissa, famous for its antiquity and architectural grandeur . The cuneiform inscriptions are on the rock pinnacles above the town, with some rock chambers, indicating a town or fortress of the Vannic period . The population has lately decreased and now numbers about 4000 . A Russian consul resides here and the town is a military station . It was captured during the Russian campaigns of 1828 and 1854, also in 1878, but was then recaptured by the Turks, who subjected the Russian garrison to a long siege; the place was ultimately relieved, but a massacre of Christians then took place in the streets . Bayazid was restored to Turkey by the treaty of Berlin .