Van
Van (Kurdish: Wan;Ottoman Turkish: فان) 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 large city since the first millennium BC, initially as Tushpa, the capital of the kingdom of Urartu from the 9th century BC to the 6th century BC, and later as the center of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan.
Archaeological excavations and surveys carried out in Van province indicate that the history of human settlement in this region goes back at least as far as 5000 BC. The Tilkitepe Mound, which is on the shores of Lake Van and a few kilometres to the south of Van Castle, is the only source of information about the oldest culture of Van.
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Van has a harsh continental climate with cold, snowy winters and warm, dry summers. Rainfall occurs mostly during the spring and autumn. Under Köppen’s climate classification Van features a hot dry summer subtype (Köppen: Dsa) of the humid continental climate.
