Ayanis Castle near Lake Van, Türkiye

Ayanis Castle was built on a rocky hill close to Ağartı village (whose old name was “Ayanis”), on the east bank of Lake Van. It was constructed by Rusa II, son of Argishti, who ruled the Urartu Kingdom between 685 and 653/650 BC.

The castle should have been built right after 673-72 BC according to the inscriptions found on the monumental gate and temple front and also according to the dendrochronology results. The castle whose altitude above sea level is 1866m has a size of 100x400m and it was built on the main rock.

The most important area of the Ayanis Castle is the temple area which houses the Haldi Temple. The temple is dedicated to Haldi, the chief god and god of war, so many military foundlings such as arrowheads, shields and quivers were obtained from this area.

On the front side of the temple and on the two sides of the entrance corridor, there are 8 basaltic blocks with the longest inscription (16m) for the Urartian history, consisting of 88 lines.

The temple walls are decorated with ornaments defined as intaglio made of alabaster stone carvings that is a unique temple feature in the world.