Gjirokastra

Gjirokastra is a UNESCO-listed Ottoman city built on the slopes of a steep hill in the Drino River valley, its characteristic stone houses with high slate roofs and projecting upper stories forming a distinctive vernacular architecture known as the Gjirokastër type. The castle at the summit has been a military stronghold since the fourth century and now houses a weapons museum and the remnants of an American military aircraft captured during the Cold War. The novelist Ismail Kadare was born here and depicted the city in several of his works.