Hosap castle, Turkey (archive report)

Haven’t been on any new explores for a few weeks so thought I’d dig out an archive report. Don’t normally post castles and at first sights this place looks like a tourist site. Given its location and the difficulty to get there/get in it probably comes under the category “unseen sites or places that are not generally open or accessible to the public”. Also there is also a Turkish military base nearby, hence the need to exercise discretion when pointing your camera around.

The place in question is Hoşap Castle, a large medieval castle in the village of the same name, located in Gürpınar District, Van Province, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. Most of the surviving structure was built by the local Ottoman-Kurdish governor Sarı Süleyman Bey in 1643. Hoşap means "beautiful water" in Kurdish. The bulky entrance tower is on the north-east and the door looks north along the wall. Above the door there are two lions either side of a tear-drop (see picture below). The castle is of strategic importance as it was the last caravan stop in the Ottoman Empire before going into the wilderness of the Silk Road.

We visited it on a day trip from Van where we were staying. The day we left town there was a full scale riot so we were pleased to hit the road and head south to Hoşap. We were quite luck to get into the castle but once it it was hard to visit bits due to the slope the castle is on and the snow on the ground. Anyhow, it’s an enchanting place and there is a nice ruined caravanserai near by for good measure. It was also a childhood dream realised. When I was a child I had a castle book with a picture of this place and it captured my young imagination. Hence I'd always wanted to go to this place and our trip to Eastern Turkey was partially driven by this.

The thing that first hits you is the location of the castle:

img0874 by HughieDW, on Flickr

There was still a bit of snow around as it was Easter when he explored the place:

img0875a by HughieDW, on Flickr

It really does perch on its rocky outcrop:

img0877 by HughieDW, on Flickr

And is totally impregnable from this side:

img0878 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0883 by HughieDW, on Flickr

The entrance tower is pretty chunky!

img0879 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Nearby is a ruined caravanserai:

img0885 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img0888 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Thanks for looking.

Very nice!

Really interesting, the first photo shows the scale nicely.

Good set of photos.

Great collection of images.

Fantastic report and pics Hughie, Most Enjoyable, Thanks