Far away from Turkey’s tourist hotspots lies the province of Van, where a massive, 3,000-year-old fortress named Tushpa, also known as Van Castle, is located. It holds the key to the secrets of an ancient kingdom.
Accessed by a long, snaking path, Tushpa looks like a mud castle from a distance and this is partially true. The lower walls, constructed under the order of the Urartian king Sarduri I, are made of basalt rock not secured by mortar and topped by mud bricks. Centuries later, tribesmen from the early Ottoman Empire would add to the upper walls, also creating simple bricks from mud.
At the summit of the rocky outcrop, the view from the castle is stupendous.
The Old City of Van lies to the south of Tushpa, according to TAN, and its ruins still show signs of fortresses, churches, and mosques, but Tushpa undoubtedly remains the most impressive city of Iron Age Anatolia. It was the kingdom’s capital, and clues as to how its people lived are woven through its walls, floors, rock chambers, and inscriptions.
The Urartians, who produced bronze, iron artifacts, jewelry, and weapons, also sacrificed animals; stains made by the blood that was carried away in man-made channels are still visible today.
Within Tushpa, there were underground storage pits for grain, rock burial chambers for the kings, and open-air sanctuaries.
The Urartian Kingdom was at its peak under the reign of King Sarduri II, who fought off attacks from the Assyrians. His descendant King Rusa I, who ruled from 735 to 714 B.C., did not fare so well.
King Rusa I’s forces were crushed in battle by King Sargon II of Assyria, and, according to TAN, records suggest Rusa I subsequently killed himself. Following this, the kingdom of Urarta slid into decline and subsequent peoples inhabited the castle, adapting it to their own needs.
But one feature still remains to remind us of the golden age of the Urartians.
On a small fortification west of the citadel is cuneiform writing (characters pressed into clay) that pays credit to Tushpa’s original founder.
“This is the inscription of king Sarduri, son of the great king Lutipri, the powerful king who does not fear to fight, the amazing shepherd, the king who ruled the rebels. I am Sarduri, son of Lutipri, the king of kings and the king who received the tribute of all the kings. Sarduri, son of Lutipri, says: I brought these stone blocks from the city of Alniunu. I built this wall.”
It is also “the oldest known Urartian inscription discovered so far,” according to the Turkish archeology website.
