I visited this tentative WHS in Spring 2021. Having already visited the Diyarbakir WHS and Sanliurfa tWHS, I wasn't really expecting much of the Van Fortress. Yet just after we drove past the really big albeit closed museum of Van, we were surprised by the sheer size of the impressive fortress also known as Van Citadel, and we decided to drive through some side streets further away to see the whole fortress from afar before climbing to the top and exploring the mound and other components of this tWHS.

The fortifications were built by the ancient kingdom of Urartu during the 9th to 7th centuries BC, overlooking the ancient ruins of Tushpa, the Urartian capital during the 9th century. The lower parts of the walls of the Van Citadel were constructed using basalt without mortar, while the rest was built using mud bricks. Successive groups such as the Medes, Achaemenids, Armenians, Parthians, Romans, Sassanid Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Seljuks, Safavids, Afsharids, Ottomans and Russians each controlled the fortress at one time or another. Similar fortifications were built throughout the Urartian kingdom, usually cut into hillsides and outcrops in places where modern-day Armenia, Turkey and Iran meet. The Van Citadel is supposed to be one of the largest and most representative of such fortresses which were used for regional control, rather than as a defense system against foreign armies.

An important trilingual inscription of Xerxes the Great from the 5th century BC is inscribed upon a smoothed section of the rock face, some 20 meters above the ground near the Van fortress. The inscription in cuneiform is divided into three columns written in Old Persian, Babylonian, and Elamite.

From the top it is easy to spot the few remains of the old city of Tushpa near the southern wall. Most are nothing more than ruins used by local farmers and shepherds for grazing. However, there are some reconstructed and/or restored Islamic buildings worth visiting or at least seeing such as the old Van minaret as well as the 16th century Köse Hüsrev Paşa complex with a mosque, a madrasa, a hospice, a caravanserai, a bathhouse, an elementary school,  and a mausoleum.

I think it will be hard for this tentative WHS to make it on the list since there are other fortifications nearby in Turkey and Syria that are already WHS. Still I enjoyed my visit and would recommend anyone travelling around the Van Lake to allow some extra time for a visit (best time would be before sunset). Another cute thing to do in the area, especially if you have kids or you're a cat lover, is to visit some of the local white Van cat breeders who claim that this two-colour eyed or blue eyed cat is not at all shy or afraid of water.