Guide
Van Castle is a fortification built of massive stone by the kingdom of Urartu, looking down on Tuşba, the Urartian capital. It stands on a sheer rock on the shore of Lake Van, five kilometres from the city of Van, and measures 1,800 metres long, 120 wide and 80 high. It was founded in the ninth century BC, between 840 and 825, by Sarduri son of Lutipri.
Fortifications of this kind are found in present-day Armenia, Türkiye and Iran. They are generally built on outcrops of rock and into hillsides, and were used less to hold off foreign armies than to control the surrounding country. The remains of the structure at the foot of the city of Van support the view that its walls were built in the Middle Ages. There are also stories that the castle was made by giants who lived in those times, because it is thought impossible to have built it with the means then available.
Excavations carried out at the castle by Russian archaeologists in 1915 and 1916 recovered the annals of the Urartian king Sarduri and made it possible to draw a full plan of the castle.
