Hasbet Kalesi — also written Haspet — sits on a slope on the eastern spur of Kızıl Ziyaret Dağı, south of Muş. Its walls and two of its towers are partly standing; the rest has come down in natural disasters. No date is established for it, but the material and the manner of building, in the lime-and-brick-dust mortar known as Horasan, together with its command of the plain, mark it as a watch post rather than a residence. Two more watchtowers, badly damaged, stand in the village of Soğucak at the foot of the hill.
The provincial directorate also records the legend attached to the place. In it, Alexander, pushed back repeatedly from Bitlis, camps on the plain of Muş and is impressed by a band of horsemen harrying his army. He sends word to their castle asking to meet, and when they come he asks who they are to trouble a commander setting out to conquer the world. They answer that they are the Gur beys, and that it was he who troubled them by entering their land.
Getting there
- Access
- About five kilometres from central Muş.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Muş as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -6.8 °C in January to 25.1 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June and September; rainfall is heaviest in March (109 mm) and lightest in August (6 mm). Long-term means for 1964-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
