Van Fortress

Van Fortress/ Van Citadel
Van, Turkey
Van Fortress as seen from the northwest.
Van Fortress/ Van Citadel
Type	Fortress
Site information
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Large sections of walls are still standing.
Site history
Built	8th and 7th centuries BC
Materials	Unmortared basalt (lower walls) and mud-bricks
Demolished	Partially

The Fortress of Van (Armenian: Վանի Բերդ, also known as Van Citadel, Turkish: Van Kalesi or Kurdish: Kela Wanê) is a massive stone fortification built by the ancient kingdom of Urartu during the 9th to 7th centuries BC, and is the largest example of its kind. It overlooks the ruins of Tushpa the ancient Urartian capital during the 9th century which was centered upon the steep-sided bluff where the fortress now sits. A number of similar fortifications were built throughout the Urartian kingdom, usually cut into hillsides and outcrops in places where modern-day Armenia, Turkey and Iran meet. Successive groups such as the Medes, Achaemenids, Armenians, Parthians, Romans, Sassanid Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Seljuks, Safavids, Afsharids, Ottomans and Russians each controlled the fortress at one time or another. The ancient fortress is located just west of Van and east of Lake Van in the Van Province of Turkey.

The lower parts of the walls of Van Citadel were constructed of unmortared basalt, while the rest was built from mud-bricks.

Inscription of Xerxes the Great near the Van Citadel

Such fortresses were used for regional control, rather than as a defense against foreign armies. The ruins of this fortress sit outside the modern city of Van, where they support walls built in the medieval era.

A stereotyped trilingual inscription of Xerxes the Great from the 5th century BC is inscribed upon a smoothed section of the rock face, some 20 meters (60 feet) above the ground near the fortress. The niche was originally carved out by Xerxes' father King Darius, but left the surface blank. The inscription survives in near perfect condition and is divided into three columns of 27 lines written in (from left to right) Old Persian, Babylonian, and Elamite. It is the only known Achaemenid royal inscription located outside of Iran. Other cuneiform inscriptions are typically off limits unless to large tour groups. It states that:

"A great god is Ahuramazda, the greatest of gods, who created this earth, who created that sky, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Xerxes king, one king for all, one ruler for all.

I am Xerxes, the great king, the king of kings, king of all kinds of peoples with all kinds of origins, king of this earth great and wide, the son of king Darius, the Achaemenid.
King Xerxes says: King Darius, my father, by the grace of Ahuramazda built much that was good, and he gave orders to dig this niche out, but because he did not make an inscription, I ordered this inscription to be made.

May Ahuramazda and the other gods protect me, my kingdom, and what I have made."

When it was published by Eugène Burnouf in 1836, through his realization that it included a list of the satrapies of Darius (repeated by Xerxes in nearly identical language), he was able to identify and publish an alphabet of thirty letters, most of which he had correctly deciphered. Burnouf's reading of the Van trilingual inscription had made a significant contribution to the deciphering of Old Persian cuneiform.

Silva Tipple New Lake led an American expedition to the ruins in 1938-40.

Gallery

• 
  Citadel with the ruins of the city of Tushpa below.
• 
  Van Fortress
• 
  The walls of the fortress (Russian Archeological Society, 1916).
• 
  Annals of Sarduri (1915).
• 
  Stairs at the fortress.

External links

• Cuneiform Inscription at Van
• Extensive picture site of the Kale area and the old town