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Van is an interesting city in Eastern Anatolia famous for its traditional breakfasts. It sits on the eastern shore of Lake Van and has a few good places to visit.
Introduction to Van
Van has been a major city since the 1st millennium BC. It was settled as Tushpa and was the capital of the Urartu from the 9th century BC through the 7th century BC. The city was later controlled by the Persians until it fell to Alexander the Great in 331 BC. After that, it passed through the hands of several civilizations, including the Seleucids, Armenias, Parthians, Byzantines, and Sassanids.
Van became the capital of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan from 908 to 1021, and it fell to the Seljuks in 1071. Since then, it has been ruled by the Mongols, Timurids, Kara Koyunlu, Aq Qoyunlu, the Ottomans, and finally the Turkish Republic.
The city was very heavily populated by Armenians until the Armenian Genocide began in 1915. In the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, the city was to be ceded to the First Republic of Armenia. After the Turkish War of Independence, the treaty was annulled and Van remained under Turkish rule.
In the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide and Turkish War of Independence, Van was almost completely empty and in ruins. It was rebuilt to the east of the ancient citadel of Van Castle.
Today, Van is a Kurdish majority city and a great place to base yourself for a few days. You can visit the major sites in the city in just a day, and take day trips to nearby sites such as Akdamar Island, Çavuştepe, and Hoşap Castle. Muradiye Falls is about an hour away and can be seen if traveling to or from Doğubayazıt. Although the city itself isn’t exactly beautiful, it’s in a spectacular setting.
Getting to Van
Van is connected to the rest of Turkey by bus and plane. The airport, Van Ferit Melen Airport (VAN), has daily flights to both Istanbul airports, as well as service to Izmir, Ankara, Antalya, Adana, and Trabzon. It’s located a short drive southwest of the city center. The bus terminal is on the north side of the city.
Getting Around Van
If you don’t have your own transportation, you’ll likely have to use public transportation at some point to get around Van. All of the major tourist sites are outside the city center. Thankfully, most hotels in the city center are situated near Cumhuriyet Street so you can easily walk to restaurants and shops.
Driving in Van is fairly easy. I didn’t have any issues other than a few people who didn’t use roundabouts correctly. There are several parking lots and garages as well.
Where to Stay in Van
I had originally planned to stay two nights but had to scale back to just one night due to a change of plans. There’s a good variety of hotels to choose from.
Rua World Hotel
We stayed at the Rua World Hotel, which is located on Ferit Melen Street just a block from Cumhuriyet Street. Staff is friendly and helpful and overall we had a nice stay.
Our rooms were modern, clean, comfortable, and quiet. The bathrooms were larger than we expected, and everyone had a good night of sleep.
The hotel features a lounge, gym, and free parking in a garage right around the corner. We especially enjoyed breakfast on the terrace. Besides the spread having a nice variety, there are fantastic views of the city and the snow-capped mountains in the distance.
Where to Eat in Van
The staff at our hotel gave us some great recommendations for dinner, but the star of the show by far is breakfast.
Bak Hele Bak Yusuf Konak
You can’t visit Van without trying its famous breakfast. The city is famous all over Turkey for an incredible breakfast spread, taking the traditional Turkish breakfast to a whole new level. To indulge in this feast, we visited Bak Hele Bak Yusuf Konak, which has been serving hungry customers since 1975.
Located on a quiet street in the city center, we walked into the restaurant just before noon to enjoy our breakfast for lunch. We were greeted by the owner, Yusuf Konak, and his nephew, who promptly gave us a table and brought us tea. Soon after, the plates started coming to the table. They kept coming, and coming, and coming, until there was no more room. In the end, there were about 20 different sweet and savory dishes for our group to try. They included a few different types of cheese including a local herbed cheese, Van otlu peynir; jams; menemen; sucuklu yumurta (eggs with sujuk); tomato and cucumber; molasses; olives; honey; kaymak (clotted cream); and other local specialties. Needless to say, everything was delicious and we left stuffed and satisfied!
We ended up having a nice chat with Mr. Konak, who has traveled all over the world introducing the Van breakfast at cultural and food festivals. He even participated in serving 51,793 during the world’s largest full breakfast attendance, certified by Guinness World Records, on June 1, 2014.
Needless to say, if you ever pass through Van, I highly recommend Bak Hele Bak Yusuf Konak for their excellent food, hospitality, and service. Otherwise, you can’t say you’ve been to Van unless you’ve had a traditional breakfast.
Kervansaray Restaurant
Kervansaray is a popular restaurant serving customers since 1982. They have a diverse menu full of Turkish specialties as well as a friendly and attentive staff. It’s located on the first floor of a building on Cumhuriyet Street in the city center.
The wonderful staff sat us next to a window and immediately brought us complimentary starters of ezme, salad, çiğ köfte, and irmik helva. I ordered a lentil soup as well.
For our main courses, most of the group ordered pide. I decided on the güveç, which is a hearty beef stew with vegetables. It was excellent. Everyone was happy with their meals.
Kaymakzade Künefe
For dessert, we walked over to Kaymakzade Künefe. They serve all kinds of varieties of künefe, kadayıf, and katmer. We decided on a traditional katmer and another stuffed with ice cream. They were ok bordering on disappointing. Service was pretty bad as well.
Van Museum
Van Museum (Van Müzesi) displays artifacts ranging from the Paleolithic period through Ottoman period. Among the highlights is the Urartian collection, which is one of the finest of its kind in the world. The museum is housed in a building that opened in 2019, and the collection is spread out over 23 exhibition halls. There’s also a conference room, library, gift shop, cafeteria, playground, and classrooms. It’s open daily except Mondays and admission for foreigners is €3 (as of August 2024). Unfortunately, the museum was closed for maintenance on the day we tried to visit.
Van Castle
Facing the museum is Van Castle (Van Kalesi), which is the location of the oldest settlement in the city. It’s situated on a 1,345 meter-long rock that’s 200 meters wide and 100 meters high. The castle and surrounding area corresponds to Tushpa, which served as the capital of Urartu from the 9th century BC through 7th century BC. It was occupied until the early 20th century.
The castle includes the royal palace of the Urartian Kingdom, including chambers, open-air sanctuaries, inscriptions, and more. The large blocks used to construct the walls are mostly Urartian while mud brick and stone blocks were added by later civilizations through the Ottoman period. There have also been several additions and repairs made over the centuries.
Van Castle is open daily and admission for foreigners is €3 (as of August 2024). The entrance is on the west side of the rock, which you can reach by walking from the Van Museum. It’s a decent climb to the top. At the time of my visit, there was no information or signage posted at the site so we had to use our imaginations. Visit the official website for more info.
Traditional Van House
Once through the entrance, a short path leads to an open area with a tea garden and some basic information about the site.
On the garden is also a replica of a traditional Van house. It’s an example of a home used by wealthy families. The home has two floors with two rooms and a central hall. It was built using sun-dried bricks and wood.
Path to the Citadel
Continuing past the tea garden is the tourist path to the castle. It gradually leads up to the top of the rock past the high castle walls.
Along the path, there are wonderful views of Van looking to the east. To the northwest you can see the lake as well as Mount Süphan. You’ll also notice a couple stone-cut structures.
Van Mound
From the tourist path, it’s possible to look down and see the excavations of Van Mound. The mound was settled in the 3rd millennium BC and has traces of early Transcaucasian, Urartian, post-Urartian, and medieval remains. It’s especially important as far as Urartian architecture, with multi-roomed homes, stone-paved courts, and stone-paved stables. Among the important features are the mud brick walls on stone foundations standing up to 1.5 meters high.
Ottoman Gate
The first major feature you’ll pass while walking up the tourist path is the reconstructed Ottoman gate to Van Castle. It’s attached to the castle walls and features a round tower on the outside.
On the rock above the gate is what’s listed as the “Ottoman tower” on the Turkish map near the entrance to the site. It’s made of mud brick with wooden beams sticking out of the walls.
Süleyman Han Mosque
At the end of the tourist path is the Süleyman Han Mosque (Süleyman Han Camii). It’s unknown when the mosque was originally built but, it’s believed to be the first Islamic structure in the city. It was renovated in 1534 by Süleyman the Magnificent during the Irakeyn Campaign. Mimar Sinan (c. 1490-1588) was in charge of the repairs, adding a dome.
The mosque was destroyed by an earthquake in 1655 and rebuilt with a flat roof and mud bricks. During the Russian occupation between 1915 and 1918, it was completely destroyed again. The current mosque was constructed in 2010.
Inner Fortress of Van Castle
A gate in front of the Süleyman Han Mosque opens to the Inner Fortress, which is the highest point of Van Castle. It’s surrounded by walls that rise up to 10 meters.
There’s not much to see today, but the Inner Fortress once contained a palace complex and a temple. You can see the remains of a mud brick building as well as a vaulted structure.
From the flagpole, it’s possible to spot the so-called 1,000 Steps (Bin Merdivenler), one of the original paths up to the castle from the south side. To the northwest is Mount Süphan. Looking south, you can see the field where Old Van used to be and the snow-capped mountains in the distance.
East Side of Van Castle
Heading back down the tourist path, we took a detour on a dirt path leading along the walls of the Inner Fortress to the east side of Van Castle. It’s a field with a rocky hill and the remains of a mud brick building.
At the end of this section is a cliff. It’s a great place to view the walls that run the length of a narrow ridge to the east of the main part of Van Castle.
Rock-cut Tombs
From the east side of Van Castle, we discovered a steep stairway leading down to two of the eight rock-cut tombs on the south face of Van Castle. The tombs date to the Urartian period.
Four of the tombs are multi-chambered, including the two at the bottom of the steps. They feature a main hall with smaller chambers connected to the hall. Some of the halls are 9 meters in height and cover an area of 200 square meters. Carving these tombs required a great deal of effort, highlighting the mathematical and architectural knowledge of the Urartians.
If you decide to climb down the steps, be very careful. There are some sketchy spots where it’s either a bit steep or slippery. The steps are mostly smoothed over.
Once on the level with the tombs, I entered the tomb on the right first. A few steps lead up to the entrance. The main hall has a tall ceiling and is connected to four smaller chambers, each with a different size and layout.
The other tomb is similar in style but much smaller. It didn’t have the high ceiling in the main hall, but some of the chambers off the main hall had even smaller chambers connected to them.
There was a lot of garbage in the tombs due to locals spending time there, which is the only negative. Hopefully the authorities will clean things up and make them more accessible in the future.
Old City of Van
The Old City of Van sits in a field south of Van Castle. It was settled in the 13th century and inhabited until the Russian occupation in 1915. The city consisted of streets lined with one or two story homes, mosques, churches, and other buildings. The area is an active archaeological site and there’s much yet to be discovered.
The Old City of Van was surrounded by walls on the east, west, and south. There were three entrances: the Tabriz Gate to the east, the Middle Gate to the south, and the Harbour Gate to the west. The Middle Gate has been rebuilt.
Hüsrev Pasha Mosque
The Hüsrev Pasha Mosque (Hüsrev Paşa Camii) is just inside the Middle Gate. It was built by Hüsrev Pasha (d. 1587), the governor of Van, and completed in 1567. The architect was likely Mimar Sinan (c. 1490-1588). It was part of a complex including a tomb, madrasa, hospice, primary school, caravanserai, and hamam.
Restorations were carried out between 1968 and 2011, and the mosque reopened for worship in 2007. Before and after photos of the restoration are posted outside the mosque.
The mosque sits on a rectangular courtyard surrounded by the madrasa on the other three sides. The ablutions fountain is in the center of the courtyard. The entrance to the mosque is under a colonnaded portico with five arches. The minaret rests on a square base on the northwest corner.
The Hüsrev Pasha Mosque was built on a square plan and is topped by a dome supported with flying buttresses. The prayer hall was once decorated with fine tiles but none have survived. Don’t miss the beautifully restored mihrab and wooden minbar.
The tomb of Hüsrev Pasha is attached to the eastern wall of the mosque. It’s a vaulted octagonal building with a door on the northeast side. The other seven sides all have windows, and inside is a wooden sarcophagus.
Kaya Çelebi Mosque
The Kaya Çelebi Mosque (Kaya Çelebi Camii) is a few steps east of the Hüsrev Pasha Mosque. It was built by Kaya Çelebi Zade Koçi Bey. Construction started in 1660 but due to the execution of Koçi Bey, it was completed in 1663 by Cem Dedemoğlu Mehmed Bey.
The mosque is similar in style to the Hüsrev Pasha Mosque. It’s also on a square plan and covered by a dome, with a colonnaded portico at the entrance. The mosque was restored and opened to worship in 1993. Unfortunately, it was closed when we walked by.
Other Buildings in the Old City of Van
There are a handful of other buildings in the Old City of Van that we couldn’t get close to. They include the Great Mosque of Van (Van Ulu Camii), the Red Minaret Mosque (Kızıl Minareli Camii), and the Hüsrev Pasha Hamam (Ηüsrev Paşa Hamamı). They can all be seen from the top of Van Castle and some were under restoration during our visit.
All that survives of the Great Mosque of Van are the foundation walls and the lower half of the minaret. Most historians place its construction in the twelfth century during the Seljuk period, however, another theory dates it to the late 14th century during the Kara Koyunlu period based on analysis of decorative materials. The mosque was abandoned in 1844 after the roof collapsed during an earthquake, and it was further damaged during World War I. The prayer hall measured roughly 26 x 30 meters.
The Red Minaret Mosque consists of the foundations and part of the minaret. The minaret dates to the Seljuk period while the mosque was a reconstruction built during the Ottoman period. The original construction is placed sometime between the 12th and 14th centuries. It was also known as the Sinaniye Mosque (Sinaniye Camii) and the Tabriz Gate Mosque (Tebriz Kapı Camii).
Other important buildings in the Old City of Van are the Horhor Mosque, Beylerbeyi Haci Mustafa Paşa Mosque, Kethüda Ahmet Mosque, Miri Warehouse, Surp Paulos and Petros Church, Surp Vardan Church, Surp Stephanos Church, Surp Dsirvanarov Chapel, and a cistern. Some of these buildings are slated for reconstruction.
Van Cat House
The Van Cat House (Van Kedisi Evi) is the home of the Van Cat Research Center (Van Kedisi Araştırma Merkezi). They study and breed Van cats and are open to the public daily. Admission is 20₺ per person (as of August 2024). It’s located north of the city center at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University.
The Van cat is a natural breed native to the area around Lake Van. They’re typically large and have white fur, and many have one blue and one amber eye. They’re also known to be fond of water and have been observed swimming in the lake.
There are both indoor and outdoor rooms and the cats are separated by gender. If you’d like to spend time with the cats, you can pay a 30₺ fee to enter a room or purchase cat food at the gift shop for 50₺ (as of August 2024). Overall, it’s a fun activity for kids and cat lovers, but the living conditions for the cats aren’t the best.
Çarpanak Island
Finally, northwest of the city center you’ll find Çarpanak Island (Çarpanak Adası), which used to be connected to the mainland as part of a peninsula. It’s accessible via a long gravel road to Cape Çarpanak (Çarpanak Burnu).
At the end of the cape is a pier with a phone number for a water taxi service to take you to the island. The island has officially been closed to tourism as of 2007 but there’s nobody there to prevent anybody from entering.
On Çarpanak Island you’ll find the church from the Ktuts Monastery (Կտուց). It was founded in the 4th century by St. Gregory the Illuminator on his return from Rome and was abandoned during the Armenian Genocide. The monastery once housed the hand of St. John the Baptist, which is now kept at the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The only surviving building is the Church of St. John, which was built in the 9th or 11th century. It’s in danger of collapsing.
Even if your goal isn’t visiting Çarpanak Island, the cape is worth the effort to see. It’s a peaceful and beautiful natural area and you’ll likely have it to yourself. From the cape there are spectacular views of Lake Van as well as Mount Süphan in the distance. Swimming is forbidden.
