Turkey Guide
Lake Van and the southeast
Hoşap Kalesi
Continuing along the Hakkari road from Çavuştepe, and 45km from Van, you pass the lake of Zernek Baraj, where the road winds just above water level. Over a small pass, and around 55km from Van, you arrive at the impressive medieval Kurdish fortress of Hoşap Kalesi (daily 8.30am– noon & 1.30–5pm; 2YTL), which towers above the squat modern village of Güzelsu (a Turkish translation of Hoşap, which is Kurdish for "beautiful water"). Dolmuşes heading for Güzelsu depart from the Sevimli office in the bazaar in Van, behind İş Bankası.
The fortress, an extraordinary, now half-ruined, flight of fancy, was constructed at the behest of Sarı Süleyman Mahmudı, a local Kurdish strongman, in the 1640s. According to legend, he was so pleased with the result when the castle was completed that he had the architect's hands lopped off, to ensure that he would never build another to rival it.
To reach the fortress, cross the river either by a bridge with alternate light and dark stone courses and a major inscription, dating from 1671, or a road bridge 100m further on, and follow a dirt track winding around to the far side of the hill. This will bring you to the main entrance, set in an immense round tower. If the caretaker is on hand he will let you in and relieve you of the entrance fee; if not, he will send his son running up from the village below. The entrance, above which are lion reliefs, a symbolic chain of power and a Persian inscription, opens into a tunnel leading to the interior of the fortress. Little is left of the original structures, which included a couple of mosques, three hamams and a medrese. The best-preserved part is the keep – reached by a path from the outer fortress. There is a cooling system built into the walls of the castle, and drainage pipes in the hamam below. Looking east from the fortress you can see the line of mud defensive-walls that once encircled the village: aeons of erosion have turned these battlements into a row of rounded plates, reminiscent of a line of browsing stegosauruses.