Van | Tushpa | Akdamar | Ahtamara

Van is quite a distance from Western Turkey and traveling by bus or car is not recommended. Nor is a train journey advisable as it takes a longer time, so your best option would be to fly. Turkish Airlines has a flight every day from Istanbul and two from Ankara.

Turkey is famous for its carpets, kilims, gold and silver jewelry, and the choice is even more vibrant, exciting and assorted when you visit the markets. So, go on an exploring spree, armed with the art of bargaining and you may come across an invaluable antique or artifact.

Lodging in Van is never a problem, as it caters to all kinds of budget. Some of the hotels are:

• The Hotel Buyuk Asur is situated in Cumhuriyet Caddesi. Apart from its standard conveniences, this hotel can offer a comfortable stay while you are at Van.
• The Akdamar Hotel is a slightly more expensive hotel and the food is excellent. The hotel’s own bars and cafes take care of all your dining needs.
• The Hotel Buyuk Urartu located in Cumhuriyet Caddesi has all the basic services and even has a conference room facilitating for conventions, meetings or gatherings.
• The Grand Urartu Hotel is a luxurious accommodation option and its indoor restaurants have the capacity for 1000 people at once.

There are many places of interest at Van and might give you the feeling of being transported in time. Do take a guide along and remember that there are places, which charge you an entrance fee.

• The Rock of Van is a tapered protrusion 1500m in length, over 100m in height, and 300m broad at the bottom.
• The Hosap Castle built by a Kurdish chieftain, in 1643 has been recently excavated and much of it remains under the ground.
• The Sarduri is an Urartian palace built by King Sardur II between 764 and 735 BC. Its temple has cuneiform inscriptions, and the palace has many modern marvels like storage containers, royal bathroom and water cisterns. There is also a container of grains, which is 2000yrs. old.
• Akdamar Island is famous for its 10th century church of the Holy Cross.

Van is famous for its natural breed of cats. Their pure white coat has auburn head smudges and tail has auburn rings too. An extraordinary trait of this longhair cat is that while one of its eyes is blue the other is green; this cat also loves to swim. Van cats are however decreasing in number in Van itself and since export is forbidden, they are almost rarely seen anywhere else.