Turkish Journey: Van Day 3

The famous Van Breakfast -- and they hadn't brought the pita bread yet!

When you tell someone you're going to Van, the first word out of their mouth is "breakfast." Van is famous throughout Turkey for its breakfast. Actually, our hotel had almost the same thing, but we decided to try one of the local breakfast establishments. There were the usual tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. But there was also a special Van cheese made with herbs collected in the mountains, a local version of kaymak, skimmed off the top of yogurt made with whole, (I'm assuming unpastuerized) milk, tahini (foreground) that you mix with a sweet sauce made from grapes, a kind of "cream of bulgur" fried in butter, other cheeses, fried eggs and sausage, etc.etc. We had a marathon day in front of us and didn't actually eat again until we were on the plane home.

It was Easter Sunday. Our route was to take us east and slightly south of Van to visit two castles. The road took us by this beautiful lake, actually man-made as the river had been dammed up. Gorgeous day.

The first castle, apparently the most photographed in Turkey, was Hoshap. The photo above certainly isn't prize-winning, but I chose it because if you look at the hill to the left, you'll see the remains of a watch touch. Actually, if you click on the photo, you'll see the remains of walls that we built as a first line of defense. The original structure was built by the Urartians, but what remains today is mostly Ottoman.

I liked this picture of the entrance. We were the only ones there. There is a watchman who will let you in for a small entrance fee -- I think we paid 5 TL for two. The iron doors are original.

The entrance is the only part of the original remaining. Strange to think people went up and down these stairs for over 2,000 years.

A view of the road leading to Iran, taken from the castle

View from the back side. The entrance is on the right side.

We were stopped at a military checkpoint coming back from Hosap castle. These Kurdish women, who were traveling to a wedding were stopped too. They actually went through our luggage. There's a lot of smuggling across the Turkish-Iranian border, mostly unleaded gas and heroin. We took the opportunity to get a picture.

From below Chavustpe castle looks just like any old ridge. However, there were actually two fortifications here. You see one on the knoll to the right. However, there is a "lesser" fortification on a knoll to the the left -- out of the picture.

View from Chavustepe across very fertile plain into the snow-capped mountains.

The winding canal to the right of the road is the original Urartian canal built to bring water to Van, about 50 km away. It's about 2,500 years old!

Mehmet Kushman, the caretaker at the site, lives in a nearby village. He was hired on during the original excavations and ultimately taught himself to read Urartian. He's one of only 38 people in the world who can read that language. All of his children are university educated and his son studies archeology and is planning to follow in his father's footsteps. Mr. Kushman also showed us with great pride an invitation to a conference in Los Angeles to which he was invited and which he attended. He said he's been involved with Chavustepe for 49 years! He has carved the Urartian alphabet and numbering system into a basalt plaque, which he sells.

Above left is the god Haldi surrounded by the Urartian numbers. On the right is the Urartian alphabet.

The inscription Mr Kushman is reading refers to the reason for the building of Chavustepe. It was built between 756-730 BC by the Urartian king Sarduri II. In this inscription he recounts the greatness of his father, Sarduri I. He says he knows that he is now king because of his father. Sarduri II tells how he found this plain without fruits, without vegetables or anything needed to survive. He was determined to recreate a wonderful place for his people to live and he was doing it in honor of his father. He also notes that anyone who might try to interfere with this place would lose the favor of Haldi, the chief god in the Urartian pantheon.

The little circles are the tops of buried storage jars. They still contain wheat.

Carbonized wheat taken from the storage jars

One of the reasons I wanted to travel to Van and the reason I chose the Easter weekend was Akdamar church, on Akdamar island. It is a former Armenian cathedral, the Church of the Holy Cross, built by the Armenian King Gagik between 915-921. It was actually part of a whole complex out on the island. You can still see the graves of the monks who lived there. There were terraced gardens below the church, on the side facing the mainland; the terraces are still there. There was also a palace, although we didn't see any remains. That doesn't mean they aren't there, however.

Church from below, walking up from the ferry dock

The entire church is wrapped in bas-relief. There is a kind of border with botanical images below the roof line. Some say it depicts flora through the seasons. Below that there are larger-than-life scenes from the Bible, like Adam and Eve eating the apple from the tree of knowledge, Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac on an altar, etc. They are quite amazing.

David and Goliath

Story of Jonah and the whale.

Of course, they had never seen a whale so they had to imagine what one would look like. The head's a bit strange but otherwise they weren't too far off. The interior was once covered with frescos. Quite a bit remains but there is still room for restoration. What I had hoped to do and was able to carry out in a modified way was to play some sacred music in the church on Easter. I took along my iPod and battery-powered speakers. After consulting with our guide I set them up and started playing the Kyrie from John Rutter's "Mass for Children." Of course, the guard came running, but was assured by our guide I wasn't doing anything "religious." However, we were also under time pressure as we had to catch a ferry back to the mainland and then get to the airport by 3 PM. So I could play as much as I wanted. But at least the sacred nature of the church was "recognized" on Easter -- even if just a little bit.