Van Castle / Tushpa (Assyrian: Turušpa, Urartian: Tušpa, Turkish: Tuşpa) is located within the borders of İpekyolu District of the Province of Van. The castle was the capital city of the Urartian Kingdom centred at the Lake Van Basin between the ninth and the sixth centuries BC. The Castle, founded on a 1345 m long, 200 wide and 100 m high conglomerate rock, is located on the southern shore of Lake Van. To its north, in the same direction, lies the Mound of Van Fortress and its south the Old City of Van, the former revealing five thousand years old settlement culture, and the latter eight hundred years old urban fabric. The area, where the Van Fortress and its lower settlement were founded, is the most fertile territory in the region, which was the primary reason for its occupation from the Early Bronze Age till the early twentieth century AD. Van Castle (Tushpa) The Castle includes the royal buildings of the capital of the Urartian Kingdom, which became a state in the ninth century BC in the heartland of eastern Anatolia. In this regard, it bears the impressive traces of the 250-year reign of the kingdom: walls and foundations, building floors carved out of levelled bedrock, rock chambers for the kings, open air sanctuaries, royal annals inscribed on the rocks, inscribed stelae, building inscriptions and so on. In this respect, the citadel has all the components of a large-scale and developed state structure. The magnificent walls of the citadel were largely built on the rock terraces, stepped rocks peculiar to Urartian architecture that can be seen all around. The large blocks of the lower courses are mostly Urartian, on which mud brick and stone additions were made until the Ottoman era. Sardurburç (Sardur Tower) located on the western tip of the Van Fortress is considered as the earliest building of the citadel. Sarduri I (840-830 BC), the founder of the Urartian Kingdom, declared his foundation of the capital in the Assyrian inscription repeated six times on the Sardurburç. The building itself lies in north-west direction and is measuring 47x13 m with a height of 4 m. The “Inner Fortress” built on the highest point of Tushpa is surrounded by walls that rise as high as 10 m. The entrance is from the west and it is composed of a palatial complex and a temple. It is named as the Old Palace due to the resemblance of its carefully worked calcareous blocks to those of Sardurburç. The New Palace and its surroundings present basic features of construction and infrastructure of the Urartian buildings. The area rises immediately to the south of the road climbing up to the Upper Citadel. The bedrock was worked to facilitate foundations and rooms, and the area has evidence for a three-storied plan. The ground floor has platforms for storage rooms and service rooms, above which rise the upper stories on foundations carved out of bedrock. In the east is a levelled space, the largest of the New Palace. The infrastructure, drainage remains and bronze dedication plaques hint at an important building complex. There are eight rock-cut tombs on the south face of the Van Fortress. Four of them are multichambered tombs dated to the Urartian period along with another one named as the “Cremation Tomb.” These have some common features: A platform in front of the entrance, a main hall reached via steps from the platform and adjoining chambers all connected to the hall. The architectural features of these tombs are the main reason for ranking the Urartian architects among the most skilful architects in the Near East. In some examples, the chambers reach 9 m in height and cover an area of 200 m2. Carving such a large mass and execution of a regular/symmetrical plan also require specific mathematical and architectural knowledge. A rock chamber on the northern slope of the rock of Van, which was used to accommodate cattle, is named as the Şirşini of Menua (Menua’s Stable) due to an inscription at the entrance. A rock terrace on the southeastern slope measuring 40x15 m is known locally as Analı Kız (Mother with Daughter) Sacred Place or “Treasure Gate” due to two rock niches it accommodates. It was built by Sarduri II (755-730 BC), the fifth king of the Urartians, and served as sacred area where religious rituals took place. The niches housed basalt stelae recording the campaigns of Sarduri II. From the date of construction various structures have been added to Fortress and it was repaired several times. Süleyman Khan Mosque, renovated during the reign of Ottomans, is among these structures. This mosque is also the first Islamic structure of the city. The Mound of Van Castle The 750 m-long mound of Van fortress is located just north of the citadel and lies in east-west direction parallel to the citadel itself. The mound, which covers 5000 year-old historical process, accommodates early Transcaucasian, Urartian, post-Urartian and medieval remains. There are only a few settlements that can offer a complete picture of the cultural history of the region and the mound of Van Fortress is one of them. Urartian architecture spreads over a wide area, revealing domestic architecture with multi-roomed houses and stone-paved courts, and stone-paved stables. Mud brick walls on stone foundations, which were preserved up to 1.5 m high, are impressive. The practice of mud brick walls rising on stone foundations is seen widespread across the site on the buildings of different periods. The Old City of Van The Old City of Van lies to the south of Van Fortress and surrounded by walls in three directions, which are supported by towers. There are three entrances on the walls, namely Tebriz Gate on the east, Middle Gate on the south and Harbour Gate on the west. The city, which consisted of streets with single or two storied houses, mosques, churches and other buildings, was inhabited from the thirteenth to the twentieth century, until the Russian invasion of 1915. It encompasses numerous monuments including Van Great Mosque (Van Ulu Camii), Red Minaret Mosque (Kızıl Minareli Camii), Hüsrevpaşa İslamic-Ottoman Social Complex and Kaya Çelebi Mosque. Recent investigations suggest that Great Mosque was built in the twelfth century, in Ahlatşah era or before 1400, in the reign of Qara qoyunlu. It is rectangular in plan and has a brick cylindrical minaret at the northwest corner. Varied arrangement of the bricks give its body a diamond motif, while between two turquoise and dark blue row of tiles is a band with a geometric composition evolved from eight armed star. Hüsrevpaşa Complex was built by Hüsrev Paşa, the governor of Van in the sixteenth century, in the Architect Great Sinan era. The complex includes a mosque, tomb, madrasa, alms house, inn and a double bath. Kaya Çelebi Mosque dates to the seventeenth century. It has a square plan and is covered with a dome. At the front is a partitioned narthex. Other important buildings of the city are: Horhor Mosque, Beylerbeyi Haci Mustafa Paşa Mosque, Kethüda Ahmet Mosque, Miri Ambari, Cistern, The Double Cupolas (Çifte Kümbetler), Surp Paulos and Petros Chruch (Çifte Kilise), Surp Vardan Chruch, Surp Stephanos Church and Surp Dsirvanarov Chapel.
VAN CASTLE
