Tushpa - Rock Tombs

The vertical descent on the south front of the citadel rock in Van contains various rock burial chambers of Urartian rulers. To the south beneath the center of the castle, stone steps lead from the summit plateau to the burial chamber of King Sardur, the builder and to the rock tomb of King Menua. The tombs which are all built to the same plan consist of an entrance hall which gives access to the plundered burial chambers alongside or behind one another. The remarkable rectangular cavities in the walls with holes in the middle probably accommodated so-called "knob-tiles" (zigati) which were attached as decorations. On the southeast wall of the rock face lies another burial chamber with a small door. Inside, a 1m/3ft high platform with 78 cavities runs along the wall. They were built to hold the urns of the deceased and the holes helped to keep the containers upright. The most interesting of the tombs can be reached from the northwest peak of the citadel. The rock faces on the southwest side, before the entrance to the burial chamber of King Ardisti I, are covered with Urartian cuneiform texts describing the deeds of the deceased. These texts are known as the "Horhor Inscriptions".

On an inaccessible middle section of the south rock another cuneiform inscription can be found in a rectangular rock niche. It dates from the Persian king Xerxes and is written in three languages: ancient Persian, Elamitic and Babylonian.