Tušpa
Coordinates: 38 ° 30 ′ 10 ″ N , 43 ° 20 ′ 22 ″ E
Tušpa ( Tuschpa ) was the capital of the Urartian Empire . It is located in the area of today's old town ( Eski Van ) of Van in eastern Turkey.
Tušpa was founded under King Sarduri I , who lived from 834 to 828 BC. Ruled, capital of the empire. The city was formed around the Urartian fortress, today's Van Kalesi . “Ruler of the city of Tušpa” was part of the title of all Urartean rulers. Tušpa is for the first time in an inscription of the Assyrian king Šulmanu-ašared III. (r. 858–824 BC) mentioned. Šalmaneser III. reports in the inscription about his victory over King Sarduri. Over time, the city became less important and its name changed to what it is today. The city was destroyed during the fighting between the Ottomans and Russians in World War I and is now a field of ruins.
In Alt-Van you can only find the remains of a few mosques from Seljuk and Ottoman times, such as the Hüsrev Paşa Camii from 1567, which contains the grave of the eponymous founder in a very beautiful doorway , or the minaret of an "Ulu Cami" from the Period of Qara Qoyunlu from the 14th / 15th centuries Century.
Van Kalesi
The limestone cliff, which slopes steeply to the south and is around 100 m high, had to be secured to the west, north and east by a weir system. At the western end of the rock there is a structure of unknown function made of mighty cyclops cubes . Six identical inscriptions in the Assyrian language attest to Sarduri I as the builder of what is therefore known as the "Sardursburg", which the locals call Madır Burçu . According to Armenian tradition, the fortress was built by Queen Semiramis (Shamiram) and was considered impregnable.
In the southwest a large rock plant as a grave monument of the king is Argišti I. interpreted. On the side of the entrance, high above the old city, the king had the so-called Horhor Chronicle affixed to the smoothed rock face : The triumphs and the founding of cities of Argišti in Transcaucasia and western Iran are reported in Urartian and cuneiform . In contrast to his great-grandfather Sarduri, he refers to the imperial god Ḫaldi, who was introduced by his grandfather Išpuini . The palatial complex contains a monumental hall, in which the royal cult of the dead was held, and several low side rooms with niches for grave goods and wall holes for lighting holders. Two shallow pits in the ground were probably intended for sarcophagi . Argišti I built the "New Palace" above this complex. In 1990 the archaeologist Taner Tarhan uncovered twelve rooms, some of which were cut out of the rock. You can see rock shells and drainage channels that were apparently not used for cults, but for everyday practical use.
In the steep south side of the rock, two large graves were carved out on an artificial terrace. The south-facing chambers with a large, barrel-vaulted cult room and four side rooms are assigned to Sarduri I. The second plant opens to the west. Since it contains two hall-like rooms one behind the other, each with two side chambers, Tarhan assigned it to kings Išpuini and Menua , because father and son ruled from around 820 to 810 BC. Ch. Together. Another, smaller room would then be dedicated to Menua's son Inušpa, who died before he could rule. On an inscription in the east of the rock he is named as the third ruler.
The Sarduri II is visible from afar, the cult terrace and tomb on the south side of the rock, which is attributed to the last king attested in inscriptions, to which a staircase carved into the rock leads. Inscriptions give a detailed account of the successful campaigns of Sarduris II, the son of Argišti I, under whose rule Urartu achieved the greatest geographical and political expansion. Benches stretch along both sides of the rectangular portal, which makes the terrace a cult place.
During the Persian rule, when Achaemenid satraps ruled Tušpa , the Persian king Xerxes I had an inscription carved into a niche on the south wall of the castle hill. In three columns, the text in the three official languages of the Achaemenid Empire, Old Persian , Elamite and Babylonian , gave the same content.
Nothing remains of the Ḫaldi temple, which stood on the highest point of the entire complex, as the inscription of kings Išpuini and Menua shows. The citadel of Tušpa was built over and expanded by the Seljuks in the 11th century and by the Ottomans (since the 12th century), many times destroyed and restored.
The ruins today reflect Eastern Anatolian history, at least since the ninth century BC.
Old van
Ottoman mosque
Vankale: Urartian-Seljuk-Ottoman citadel
ottoman gate
urartian gutter
trilingual Xerxes inscription
literature
- O. Belli: The Capital of Urartu. Van. Ruins and Museum. Istanbul 1989, ISBN 975-479-093-0 .
- H.-D. Kaspar, E. Kaspar: Urartu. An ancient empire. A travel guide. Hausen 1986, ISBN 3-925696-01-6 , pp. 46-72.
- M. Salvini: Tušpa, the capital of Urartus. In: V. Haas (ed.) Das Reich Urartu. An ancient oriental state in the 1st millennium BC. Chr. Konstanz 1986, ISBN 3-87940-274-4 , pp. 31-58.
- MT Tarhan: The Capital City Tushpa. In: K. Köroğlu, E. Konyar (eds.): Urartu. Transformation in the East. Istanbul 2011, ISBN 978-975-08-1857-8 , pp. 288–337.
- MT Tarhan: Tushpa-Van Fortress: Researches and Excavations at the Mysterious Iron Age Capital. In: O. Belli (Ed.): İstanbul University's Contributions to Archeology in Turkey 1932–2000. Istanbul 2001, ISBN 975-404-616-6 , pp. 157-164.
- Marianne Mehling: Knaur's cultural guide: Turkey . Droemer Knaur , Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-426-26293-2 , pp. 514-520.
- Volker Eid : In the land of Ararat. Peoples and cultures in Eastern Anatolia. Konrad Theiss Verlag , Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8062-1903-6 , pp. 38-44.
Individual evidence
- ^ Carl Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt: Armenia then and now. (Travel and Research), 3 vols., 1910/1926/1931; Reprint Hildesheim / New York 1988.
- ^ Robert W. Thomson (Ed.), Thomas Artsruni, History of the House of the Artsrunik. Detroit, Wayne State University Press 1985, 369
Web links
- Jona Lendering: Tušpa (Van) . In: Livius.org (English)