Ayanis Kalesi stands 300 metres east of the shore of Lake Van and 225 metres above the level of the lake, at the end of the western spur of the hill called Güney Tepe.
The approach depends on which side you are on. The western face, looking towards the lake, is rock and steep slope; the other sides climb more easily.
Its Urartian name was Rusahinili Eidurukai, which the provincial directorate translates as the city of Rusa before Mount Eiduru. The castle was abandoned after 645 BC, the year the directorate gives for the fall of the Urartian kingdom.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Van as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -3 °C in January to 22.4 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in April (55 mm) and lightest in August (6 mm). Long-term means for 1939-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
