Van | Tushpa | Akdamar | Ahtamara

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.

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.

The modern city is located on the plain extending from the Lake Van, at a distance of 5 kilometers from the lake shore.

It has often been called “The Pearl of the East” because of the beauty of its surrounding landscape. An old Armenian proverb in the same sense is “Van in this world, paradise in the next”. This phrase has been slightly modified in Turkish as dünyada Van, ahirette iman or “Van for this world, faith for the next”.

The city is home to Van Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversitesi (Van 100th Year University) and recently came to headlines in Turkey for two highly publicized investigations initiated by the Prosecutor of Van, one of which was focused on accusations against the university rector, Prof. Yücel Aşkın, who was kept in custody for a time. He finally acquired but lost his rectorate. He is a grandson of Agop Vartovyan, who was one of the Ottoman Armenians and was accepted the founder of modern Turkish theatre, and is a department chairman of Environmental Engineering in Van 100th Year University.

In culinary terms, as some cities in Turkey became renowned for their like kebap culture or else, Van has distinguished itself with its breakfast culture.

The Turkish Van and Van Kedisi (Van Cat) are breeds of cat native to this town and named after it. The Turkish Van cat is noted for having different coloured eyes and enjoying swimming and rain.

On March 22nd, 2008 riots broke out in Van as the Newruz celebrations turned violent. The riots consisted mostly of young adults throwing rocks at police. damage included many broken windows.