1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kara-Hissar Sharki

KARA-HISSAR SHARKI [i.e. “eastern Kara-Hissar”], also called Shabin Kara-Hissar from the alum mines in its vicinity, the chief town of a sanjak of the same name in the Sivas vilayet of Asia Minor. Pop. about 12,000, two-thirds Mussulman. It is the Roman Colonia, which gradually superseded Pompey’s foundation, Nicopolis, whose ruins lie at Purkh, about 12 m. W. (hence Kara-Hissar is called Nikopoli by the Armenians). In later Byzantine times it was an important frontier station, and did not pass into Ottoman hands till twelve years after the capture of Constantinople. The town, altitude 4860 ft., is built round the foot of a lofty rock, upon which stand the ruins of the Byzantine castle, Maurocastron, the Kara Hissar Daula of early Moslem chroniclers. It is connected with its port, Kerasund, and with Sivas, Erzingan and Erzerum, by carriage roads.