The Eyalet of Kars (Ottoman Turkish: ایالت قارص; Eyālet-i Ḳarṣ) was an eyalet (province) of the Ottoman Empire. Its reported area in the 19th century was 6,212 square miles (16,090 km2). The town of Kars, which had been levelled to the ground by the Timur in 1368, was rebuilt as an Ottoman fortress in 1579 (1580 according to other sources) by Lala Mustafa Pasha, and became capital of an eyalet of six sanjaks and also a place of pilgrimage. It was conquered by Shah Abbas in 1604 and rebuilt by the Turks in 1616.