A fountain behind the madrasah. Erzurum is known as being a very pious city, though it seemed that might be changing. This was a typical scene, with the grandmother in full traditional dress, covering almost her whole face, the mothers in head scarves, and women in their teens and twenties often with uncovered heads or token scarves (girls as young as those here are not expected to cover their heads). Also, across the street from here was a shopping center with a large outdoor TV playing western music videos with lots of sexual lyrics. Not what I expected after reading The Rough Guide's description of the city that made it sound like Riyadh.