Van

Van is a city in eastern Turkey's Van Province, located on the eastern shore of Lake Van. The city has a long history as a major urban area. It has been a vast city since the principal thousand years BC, at first as Tushpa, the capital of the kingdom of Urartu from the 9^th century BC to the 6^th century BC, and later as the focal point of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan. Today, Van has a Kurdish dominant part and a sizeable Turkish minority. In 2010 the official populace figure for Van was 367,419, yet numerous appraisals put it significantly higher with a 1996 gauge expressing 500,000 and previous Mayor Burhan Yengun is cited as saying it might be as high as 600,000.

The Van Central area extends more than 2,289 square kilometers. Archeological unearthings and overviews did in Van area demonstrate that the historical backdrop of human settlement in this locale returns in any event to the extent 5000 BC. The Tilkitepe Mound, or, in other words shores of Lake Van and a couple of kilometers toward the south of Van Castle, is the main wellspring of data about the most established culture of Van.