The site

Van Fortress is a massive stone stronghold in eastern Turkey, raised by the Urartian kingdom that held the highlands around Lake Van between roughly 900 and 600 BCE. Perched on a long rocky bluff, it commands the surrounding plain from a natural defensive height. For the field explorer it stands as one of the great surviving works of Urartian military engineering, a citadel cut and built into living rock.

Field notes

civilizations

Urartian

types

Fortress

occupied

900 BCE — 600 BCE

country

Türkiye