- Type
- Ruin
- Built
- c. 840 BC · 9th century BC
- Coordinates
- 38.5025°, 43.3400°
History
The citadel on a limestone ridge above the lake was begun in the second half of the 9th century BC, around 840 BC, by King Sarduri I, who made it the capital of the kingdom of Urartu – Tushpa. Urartu fell in the 6th century BC, and in the 5th century BC the Achaemenid king Xerxes I had a trilingual inscription carved into the rock. In the Middle Ages Van was a centre of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan, then passed to the Seljuks, Mongols and Persians until Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent captured it in 1548. The old town at the foot of the rock was destroyed during the First World War.
What to see
The rock runs for over a kilometre along the shore, and paths climb to its crest with the ruins of walls, towers and an Ottoman mosque. Tombs of Urartian kings are cut into the cliffs, among them that of Argishti I, inscribed with the annals of his campaigns. At the western end stands the Sardur Tower with the earliest inscriptions, and the Xerxes text is carved on the south face. The summit overlooks the lake and the ruins of the old town.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q3187042
Popularity: articles about this site in 22 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).