Things to do
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Cathedral of the Holy Cross
The Armenian palatine church of 915 on Akdamar island, whose outer walls carry a continuous relief of Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale. Boats run from the Gevaş jetty and the crossing takes twenty minutes.
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Çavuştepe
An Urartian fortress of the eighth century BC on a ridge south of Van, with a temple of polished basalt blocks, cuneiform inscriptions and a cistern. The caretaker has looked after it for decades.
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Hoşap Castle
A Kurdish lord's castle of 1643 on a rock above the Güzelsu river, entered through a carved gate flanked by lions, with a mosque, baths and dungeons inside the walls. It is on the road towards Hakkari.
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Lake
Lake Van
The largest lake in Turkey and one of the largest soda lakes in the world, seven times saltier than the sea and holding only one native fish. Its water is slippery to the touch and it never freezes at the centre.
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Muradiye Waterfall
A fall on the Bendimahi river north of the lake, crossed by a suspension footbridge, where the water drops about twenty metres over a basalt lip. It runs strongest in May.
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Van Fortress
The Urartian citadel of Tushpa, cut into a limestone ridge above the old city, with royal rock tombs, a trilingual inscription of Xerxes and the ruins of the pre-1915 town below it. Sunset over the lake is the reason to climb it late.
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Van Museum
The provincial collection, reopened in a new building in 2022, holding Urartian bronzes, jewellery and cuneiform tablets from the sites around the lake. It is the best Urartian collection outside Ankara.