Tushpa
Tushpa is the capital of the antique kingdom of Urartu. It corresponds to the current site of Van Kalesi , on the edges of the Lac of Van, in Eastern Turkey.
Tushpa was high with the row of capital of Urartu by Sarduri I {{er}}. This citadel had a 1.050 meters length and a width varying from 125 meters to 50 meters, for a surface of 4 hectares. It was built above the of the same city name, which extended on a space from approximately 30 hectares, on the escarpments bordering the Lake Van. Its construction constituted a difficult task because of the narrowness of the place on which it was built.
The walls were thus of cyclopean type, firmly anchored in the cut rock and they thus had solids foundations. Because of Topography of the site, the height of the walls varied. Their width was of approximately 3 meters, and all their length were strewn with the turrets of defense. The stone of the walls was extracted from local careers, but it could also come from blocks of Basalte coming from a volcanic area located on other side from the lake. Certain blocks of stone could weigh more than 20 tons. The buildings contained in the citadel (the fortress in itself) were them made dried bricks, like everywhere with the the Middle East, and rose with 20 meters height approximately. To support the roofs, beams out of wooden, and solids pillars were used. Because of topography of the site on which this fortress was established, the buildings were on different levels. They were connected between them by a network of course and staircases.
The site of Van Kalesi is the precursor of the fortresses urartéennes. Its principal monument is the " castle of Sarduri". One also found there monuments cut in the rock, of which Mausolée S.
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