Van Castle

About this place

Twenty metres up a sheer rock face, Xerxes I of Persia had his name cut in three dead languages, and the inscription has survived almost untouched for some 2,500 years. It is the only Achaemenid royal inscription in Türkiye and one of a bare handful anywhere outside Iran, and it is not even the oldest thing here. The rock itself, a spur well over a kilometre long and up to 100 metres high on the shore of Lake Van, was Tushpa, capital of the kingdom of Urartu from the 9th century BC, when King Sarduri I raised its first walls in unmortared basalt blocks, some of which still sit where his masons left them. Inside the rock are the chambers carved as tombs for the Urartian kings, their annals written on the walls in cuneiform. The walls you see on top are much younger: medieval and Ottoman mud-brick and stone, after Medes, Persians, Armenians, Seljuks, Ottomans and finally the Russians in the First World War had each taken their turn. The route to the summit is a broad track zig-zagging through the gates, but it is steep, entirely shadeless, and its loose gravel slides underfoot. Allow thirty to forty-five minutes up in proper shoes with a bottle of water; this is no place for a pushchair or for anyone who struggles with stairs, though children over eight or so tend to love it. The prize at the top is the full panorama: the vast blue lake to the west, the modern city to the east with the snow-topped bulk of Erek Dağı behind it, and Mount Artos across the water to the south-west. The most affecting part lies at the southern foot of the rock: Old Van, the walled city abandoned after the destruction of 1915-18 and never rebuilt. Today it is a wide grassy field threaded with the foundations of houses and lanes, with only a handful of buildings standing: the Hüsrev Paşa complex attributed to Mimar Sinan (1567), with its mosque, han, tomb and double hammam; the Kaya Çelebi Mosque; and one surviving city gate. The Ulu Cami, of which only the minaret remained, is being rebuilt under the Old Van revival project under way since around 2023. Entry to this ground is free, the walking is flat and easy, and to my mind it deserves an hour as much as the climb does. Foreign visitors pay 3 euros (Turkish citizens use the Müze Kart or a lira ticket); the castle opens daily from 08:00 to 17:00, and the best slot is the last two hours before closing, when the light on the lake softens. A true sunset from the top falls after the official closing time in summer, so do not build the day around it. In July and August it is close to 30 degrees, not brutal, but an afternoon climb is tiring; in winter snow covers the track and makes it genuinely dangerous, so settle then for Old Van and the view from below. From the city centre a dolmuş marked Kale gets you here in about fifteen minutes, or take a taxi; there is parking at the entrance.