Day 236: Van

Nov 25 - Go upstairs to the breakfast room of the hotel early. Within ten minutes the hordes arrive, loading up with platefuls of bread, and the nervous breakfast attendant can’t keep up with the volume being consumed. This hotel (and probably many others in the area) are very popular with tourists from Iran. In fact, most of the patron instructions in the lobby and elevator are all in Farsi. This happens to be a holiday weekend in Iran, so they are visiting Türkiye, perhaps to go shopping, but definitely to party. The banging doors and late night slurred conversations in the hallways last night, and tonight, are suggestive of people wanting to unwind, away from the restrictive daily rules in their home country. For us, it is like seeing a completely different side to the people we found so polite and reserved just six weeks ago.

Off to the docks in hopes of getting a boat ride to Akdamar Island and the famous church there. The boathouse is silent and we are told it may be awhile before enough passengers come to justify sending a boat out (50 TL/person). We sit in a café and wait, almost two hours, and absolutely no one shows up. Where are all the Iranian tourists? We decide not to waste any more time here and go back to Van.

Go down close to the lake. Oddly, the city doesn’t really extend out to the shore. But close to it is a prominent ridge (the only one in the area), upon which is Van Castle.

First, the mandatory stop at the city sign for Odette to pose with.

Van Castle started out as a fortification about 5000 years ago, and it shows. What a hodge-podge of cliff wall excavations, stone ramparts, and mud-brick towers. Some of the most interesting (an ancient) stuff isn’t really even visible without a drone, or rappelling equipment. This was, in fact, the capital of the Urartian Kingdom (called Tushpa).

A good view of the old city off the southern side of the hill, now completely in ruins. The only structures still identifiable are the mosques. It is on this side that the cliff has some inscriptions and engravings dating back to Urartian times (9th to 7th century BCE). There is also an engraving from Xerxes I, a century later.

A junior-sized Ottoman bridge near the castle.

Within walking distance of the castle is Van Museum. As routine as it sounds to go to yet another museum, somehow there is always something really special there that captivates even Odette. This one spends most of its interior space with artifacts from the Urartian Kingdom, a civilization I knew almost nothing about before coming here. They occupied much of SE Türkiye, with Van more or less the center. They coalesced a number of smaller kingdoms and became a regional power by the 9th century BCE. They initiated the use of cuneiform writing in this region, a script type that was being used internationally by the surrounding empires. By the late 7th century BCE, they were in decline and assimilated by the rising Assyrian Empire.

This is a Hakkari stele, found near a town by the same name SE of here. They emerge in the region in the 2nd millennium BCE. They are remarkably similar to stele found over a huge geographic area, from Portugal to Mongolia, dating from the 3rd millennium to about 1500 BCE. Perhaps they are grave markers for warriors, showing little sketches of things the deceased had in life (including family members).

This grave marker, written in Armenian, says: “Here rest Yepremsime Chitchian born 1841 and died 1901, December 29, and her son Pieadre.”

There was a great coin room, with carefully labeled specimens, spanning basically all eras of numismatic history. Also a hands-on science museum, so plenty of fun for Odette, and the hordes of schoolkids that showed up on a field trip.

From here it is a short distance to the surprise of the day, which is a residence for the famous Van cats. These cats are unusual for several reasons: (1) they originate in the area of Van and never propagated anywhere else, (2) they all exhibit heterochromia, that is, eyes are two different colors, and (3) they voluntarily go swimming.

They are also usually white, though not all we saw were.

The home we went to was small, but had at least 50 cats. There are other places where they are kept in groups, but are farther out of town. They have a fairly nice place, with stuff to climb and ample food/water, though nothing in the way of toys.

Some coloration was seen, and I noted that a few cats had a very weak version of heterochromia.

If you want a Van cat from Van, there is a waiting list. It is apparently fairly difficult to get one.

Türkiye III