Explore 1,400-year-old ruins, submerged in Eastern China – Atlantis of China
Deep in Qiandao Lake, between China’s Five Lion Mountains, lie the mysterious ruins of two ancient cities, dating back to the Han and Tang dynasties. Known as the ‘Atlantis of China,’ the place is largely preserved intact even after centuries.
Qiandao Lake, also known as Thousand Island Lake, is a sprawling body of fresh water, covering 573 sq. km. The name comes from the fact that there are over a thousand islands in the lake.
The underwater city of Shicheng is a magnificent, mysterious time capsule of Imperial China. Shi Cheng – which means Lion City in Mandarin – was purposely flooded in 1959 to make way for the Xin’an Dam and its adjoining hydroelectric station.
This was a massive government project that forced 300,000 people to relocate their homes as more than 1,300 villages and tens of thousands of acres of farmland were flooded and submerged.
In addition to the direct impact on the local residents, two ancient cities located in the valley at the foot of the mountain were also submerged into the lake.
The city was “rediscovered” in 2001 when the Chinese government organized an expedition to see what might remain of the lost metropolis.
The early divers found Shi Cheng to be largely intact, with many of the structures, carvings, guardian lions, and arches still preserved. There have been efforts to map & document Shi Cheng by divers and researchers, as well as looking into protective measures to prevent damage to it.
In January 2011, the cities were declared historical relics under the protection of the Zhejiang Province.
Shi Cheng was once the center of politics and economics in the eastern providence of Zhejiang. It is believed the city of Shi Cheng was built during the Tang Dynasty in 621 AD. Based on records of the region’s history, it is thought to be quite large, possibly over 60 football fields, and featuring 265 arches throughout the city.
Shi Cheng was also unusual in that it was constructed with 5 city gates and towers, as opposed to the norm of 4. The city of He Cheng is believed to date back even further to the Han Dong dynasty (25 -200 AD).
The city achieved the zenith of its glory from 1368-1644 when the Ming dynasty ruled China. The existing walls of the city date to the sixteenth century.
In 2014, after the authorities realized that the city was intact below water, they allowed tourists to visit the area by diving. Visitors can relish the 1,400-year-old architectural wonders at the diving site. However, only expert divers are allowed.
Today, advanced divers can get up close to the ruins with dive operators such as Big Blue and Zi Ao Diving Club, which run regular dives between April and November. Since the ruins have yet to be fully mapped, the dive is still considered “Exploratory”.
Stone Penis Found in Medieval Spanish Ruins Had Violent Purpose
Archaeologists found a six-inch stone penis while excavating the Tower of Meira (Torre de Meira) in the city of Ría de Vigo in the northwest region of Spain.
Phallic symbolism is commonly found in prehistoric artifacts, but it is less common in finds from the medieval era. That’s why archaeologists couldn’t understand why this object was on medieval grounds.
But now the relic stands out, not just for its phallic form, but for its violent purpose – to sharpen weapons in preparation for bloody battles during the Irmandiño War in Spain.
Experts said this kind of symbolism may have been related to the violent uprisings taking place in the region around the time when the tower was demolished.
Torre de Meira was brought down in 1476 during the Irmandiño revolts when peasants rose up against the Spanish nobility. Some 130 castles and forts suffered the same fate.
According to Darío Peña from the Árbore Arqueoloxía team, sharpening stones are commonly discovered at medieval sites, and can have different forms.
The archaeologists determined the function of the stone penis by observing a distinct pattern of wear on one side of the phallic whetstone.
Archaeologists believe the medieval stone phallus was used to sharpen weapons.
The artifact’s cultural significance is unknown, but its proximity to the fortified tower may provide some insight. It might have had a symbolic significance in relation to the war or served a useful function during that trying time.
“It materializes the symbolic association between violence, weapons, and masculinity,” archaeologist Darío Peña told Hyperallergic. “An association that we know existed in the Middle Ages and that is present in our culture today.”
The phallic stone was found among other artifacts including pottery and stone spindles according to Árbore Arqueoloxía e Restauración S. Coop. Galega, the group leading the excavations.
Excavations at this site began around 3 years ago. In the first phase of excavations, the tower was excavated and restored by Arbore. Just last year, the focus was shifted to the structure’s surrounding wall, and finally, the focus was shifted to the excavation of the main building.
Archaeologists plan to continue excavations at the site, after seeking permission from the landowners in the municipality of Moaña.
Freshwater and marine shells used as ornaments 30,000 years ago were discovered in Spain
In Malaga’s Cueva de Ardales, up to 13 freshwater and marine shells that were carefully transformed by humans between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago have been discovered.
According to a study published in the environmental scientific journal Environmental Archaeology, the first Homo sapiens wore necklaces and earrings made from seashells from the Bay of Malaga.
This incredible discovery was the result of research conducted in collaboration with the Neanderthal Museum of Colonia, the University of Colonia, and the Cueva de Ardales, according to a press release from the University of Cadiz.
This archaeological enclave is now once more among the most significant in the Iberian Peninsula thanks to the discovery. When it comes to the Paleolithic era, body adornments are a subject of great interest to the scientific community.
According to the scientific article, the shells were “carefully transformed” by humans of the genus Homo sapiens into ornaments and pendants to decorate the bodies of these groups that occupied the Ardales Cave.
The symbolic value of these natural supports and the distance that human groups occasionally traveled to gather them and turn them into decorative elements represented a significant advancement in the development of cognition.
The analysis of these shells has been headed by UCA professor Juan Jesús Cantillo Duarte.
“It is unusual to find this type of marine remains in caves located so far inland and with such an ancient chronology. On the Mediterranean, only a little more than a hundred remains were known, and all of them are located on the coast,” Duarte said.
“ The inhabitants of the Ardales cave, however, had to travel a distance of more than 50 km to collect the shells on the coast”, added Professor José Ramos.
Investigadores de la UCA lideran un estudio arqueológico en la Cueva de Ardales que revela el uso de conchas como adornos hace 30.000 años.
Also noteworthy was: “the presence of vermetids, a kind of tube-shaped snail that is uncommon in the archaeological record”, stressed Cantillo Duarte.
The chronological framework and the association of these ornaments with the rock art and lithic remains documented inside the cave confirm their social dimension.
“The results of the excavations in the Ardales Cave suggest that it was used as a place for specialized symbolic activities during various phases of the Upper Palaeolithic,” said Pedro Cantalejo, research director of the Ardales Cave, for whom the cave still has much to tell.
A 42,000-Year-Old Foal Entombed in Ice Still Had Liquid Blood in Its Veins
Over the past month, scientists have made more than 20 unsuccessful attempts to extract viable cells from the foal’s tissue Semyon Grigoryev/North-Eastern Federal University
Last August, a group of mammoth tusk hunters unearthed the nearly intact remains of a 42,000-year-old foal during an expedition to Siberia’s Batagaika crater.
Preserved by the region’s permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, the young horse showed no signs of external damage, instead retaining its skin, tail, and hooves, as well as the hair on its legs, head, and other body parts.
Now, the Siberian Times reports, researchers from Russia’s North-Eastern Federal University and the South Korean Sooam Biotech Research Foundation have extracted liquid blood and urine from the specimen, paving the way for further analysis aimed at cloning the long-dead horse and resurrecting the extinct Lenskaya lineage to which it belongs.
To clone the animal, scientists would need to extract viable cells from the blood samples and grow them in the lab. This task is easier said than done: Over the past month, the team has made more than 20 attempts to grow cells out of the foal’s tissue, but all have failed, according to a separate Siberian Times article. Still, lead Russian researcher Lena Grigoryeva says, those involved remain “positive about the outcome.”
The fact that the horse still has hair makes it one of the most well-preserved Ice Age animals ever found, Grigoryev tells CNN’s Gianluca Mezzofiore, adding, “Now we can say what color was the wool of the extinct horses of the Pleistocene era.”
In life, the foal boasted a bay-colored body and a black tail and mane. Aged just one to two weeks old at the time of his death, the young Lenskaya, or Lena horse, met the same untimely demise as many similarly intact animals trapped in permafrost for millennia.
The scientists extracted liquid blood samples from the 42,000-year-old animal’s heart vessels Semyon Grigoryev/North-Eastern Federal University
The scientists extracted liquid blood samples from the 42,000-year-old animal’s heart vessels Semyon Grigoryev/North-Eastern Federal University
The foal likely drowned in a “natural trap” of sorts—namely, mud that later froze into permafrost, Semyon Grigoryev of Yakutia’s Mammoth Museum told Russian news agency TASS, as reported by the Siberian Times.
“A lot of mud and silt which the foal gulped during the last seconds of [the foal’s] life were found inside its gastrointestinal tract,” Grigoryev says.
This is only the second time researchers have extracted liquid blood from the remains of prehistoric creatures.
In 2013, a group of Russian scientists accomplished the same feat using the body of a 15,000-year-old female woolly mammoth discovered by Grigoryev and his colleagues 2013, as George Dvorsky reports for Gizmodo. (It’s worth noting that the team studying the foal has also expressed hopes of cloning a woolly mammoth.) Significantly, the foal’s blood is a staggering 27,000 years older than this previous sample.
The NEFU and South Korean scientists behind the new research are so confident of their success that they have already begun searching for a surrogate mare to carry the cloned Lena horse and, in the words of the Siberian Times, fulfill “the historic role of giving birth to the comeback species.” It’s worth noting, however, that any acclaim is premature and, as Dvorsky writes, indicative of the “typical unbridled enthusiasm” seen in the Russian news outlet’s reports.
Speaking with CNN’s Mezzofiore, Grigoryev himself expressed doubts about the researcher’s chances, explaining, “I think that even the unique preservation [of] blood is absolutely hopeless for cloning purposes since the main blood cells … do not have nuclei with DNA.”
He continued, “We [are] trying to find intact cells in muscle tissue and internal organs that are also very well-preserved.”
What the Siberian Times fails to address are the manifold “ethical and technological” questions raised by reviving long-gone species. Among other concerns, according to Dvorsky, scientists have cited the clone’s diminished quality of life, issues of genetic diversity and inbreeding, and the absence of an adequate Ice Age habitat.
It remains to be seen whether the Russian-South Korean team can actually deliver on its ambitious goal. Still, if the purported July 2018 resurrection of two similarly aged 40,000-year-old roundworms “defrosted” after millennia in the Arctic permafrost is any indication, the revival of ancient animals is becoming an increasingly realistic possibility.
Orichalcum, the lost metal of Atlantis, may have been found in a shipwreck off Sicily
MYSTERIOUS metal ingots linked to the mythical civilisation of Atlantis have been recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Sicily.
Archaeologists last month recovered a wealth of ingots of an unusual golden alloy from the wreck sitting in about 3m of water, 300m off the coast of Gela in southern Sicily.
Also recovered from the wreck, which sank some 2600 years ago, were two Corinthian war helmets and containers once used to hold precious, scented oils.
But it is the rough lumps of metal still shining with red and gold hues after two millennia on the sea floor that has excited the archaeological world.
Divers uncovered another 47 ingots from the mud last month.
A stack of orichalcum ingots they were found on the sea floor amid the wreck of a ship off Sicily.
SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR
The archaeologists working on recovering the wreck say it went down within sight of safety.
“The ship dates to the end of the sixth century BC,” Sicilian archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa told Seeker.
“It was likely caught in a sudden storm and sunk just when it was about to enter the port.”
This rules out Atlantis. Plato, writing in the 4th Century BC, implies that the legendary city slipped beneath the waves many hundreds — perhaps thousands — of years earlier. Archaeologists believe the ship was exporting the orichalcum from Greece or Asia Minor.
Given its precious cargo, it may not have had an easy voyage.
“The presence of helmets and weapons aboard ships is rather common. They were used against pirate incursions,” Tusa said.
Also recovered was an anchor, remains of amphorae and several smaller containers used for carrying precious oils. The shipwreck, and that of another two nearby, are yet to be fully excavated. Tusa told La Repubblica that protecting the wrecks remains a concern, with looters believed to be exploiting a lack of policing of the archaeologically rich waters.
Orichalcum has been linked to the mythical land of Atlantis, which may itself have been a distorted memory of an ancient Minoan palace on the island of Santorini, destroyed in the eruption of a volcano about 1590 BC.
MYTHICAL METAL
The red-hued orichalcum alloy was long regarded to be a myth mentioned only in passing in Ancient Greek tales by the likes of Hesiod in the 8th Century BC and Plato in the 4th Century BC. One legend states it was invented by the legendary first king of Thebes, Cadmus, and was said to be regarded as being only slightly less precious than gold.
Plato lauded the glistening metal’s properties, and attributed it to Atlantis:
“For because of the greatness of their empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided most of what was required by them for the uses of life. In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there, solid as well as fusile, and that which is now only a name and was then something more than a name, orichalcum, was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, being more precious in those days than anything except gold.”
He went on to say the metal was used to give the interior of the temple of Poseidon, at the heart of Atlantis, a magical glow.
“The zones of earth were surrounded by stone walls of divers colours, black and white and red, which they sometimes intermingled for the sake of ornament; the outermost wall was coated with brass, the second with tin, and the third, which was the wall of the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum.”
Exactly what it was, and what it was made of, was a matter of speculation.
Cleaned of 2600 years worth of muck, the orichalcum still glistens with its original hue. Picture: Sebastiano Tusa, Superintendent of the Sea-Sicily Region
FROM LEGEND TO REALITY
Turns out, orichalcum may not be as exotic as the ancient tales suggest. Though it was almost certainly mysterious to many of the jewellers who formed it — and sold it.
Studies have shown the metal ingots to be made of about 75-80 per cent copper, 14-20 per cent zinc and a scattering of nickel, lead and iron.
The process of its production was likely to have been a tightly-held secret. Exactly how it was achieved remains a matter of debate. One explanation that fits the findings is that zinc ore, charcoal and copper could have been reacted in a molten crucible.
Whatever the case, the shiny brass-like alloy was highly regarded as it did not tarnish. It was also durable enough for use in jewellery.
Which is where the shipwreck comes in.
It was found just outside a harbour to the Greek colony city of Ghelas which, in ancient times, was a centre for craftsmen specialising in fine jewellery and ornate artefacts.
Two Corinthian-style helmets recovered from the wreck off Gela, Sicily. Picture: Sebastiano Tusa, Superintendent of the Sea-Sicily Region
The Valley of Whales in the Middle of Egypt’s Desert is Millions of Years old
The site is called Wadi Al Hitan, dubbed the Valley of Whales, located around 160 kilometers from the famous pyramids at Giza.
An ancient Egyptian desert, once a vast ocean, guards the secret of one of the most remarkable transformations in the evolution of life on planet Earth. Egypt is known as the land of Pyramids, Pharaohs, and golden sands. Countless jewels have been excavated from beneath Egypt’s sands, revealing a treasure trove of a time long gone. Archaeologists have discovered pyramids, temples, entire cities, and finds whose value is incalculable.
But there’s more to Egypt than the Sphinx, the Pharaohs, and its incredible pyramids; there is more to this wonderful land than the Valley of Kings. Some 160 kilometers southwest of the Pyramids at the Giza plateau is a treasure trove of history. No pyramids, temples, or mummies are buried there, but it is a site of great importance. Wadi Al Hitan was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. The reason? Hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest forms of whales, the archaeoceti (a now-extinct sub-order of whales), lie buried beneath the desert sand.
The story of Wadi Al Hitan
The story of Wadi Al Hitan is worthy of the most impressive tales. Some 40 million years ago (give or take a few), massive beasts swam in the vast prehistoric Tethys ocean. It was home to numerous creatures that have long since been forgotten. One of these massive animals, over 50 feet long, had massive jaws and jagged teeth. It looked unlike anything living inside Earth’s oceans today.
The creatures eventually died, sinking to the prehistoric ocean seafloor. Tens of thousands of years went by, and a fine protective mantle of sediment eventually built up over the beasts’ bones. The prehistoric sea receded. The former seabed transformed into a vast desert as powerful winds armed with fine grains of sand began covering the surface little by little, eventually preserving the whales that would remain hidden for time to come.
Eventually, it became another of the many secrets hidden beneath the golden sands of Egypt. Time passed by, and the planet’s geology and geography warped. The planet’s crust smashed India into Asia, giving birth to the breathtaking Himalayas. Humankind came into existence, and Africa saw the first humans stand straight, evolve, and eventually build a civilization that would forever become imprinted in history.
The mighty Kings of Egypt built incredible mastabas, which evolved into massive pyramids. Egypt flourished and fell, and the land of Pharaohs was no more. Then, more than one hundred years ago, the wind revealed massive fossils of long-gone beasts, which delicately preserved and revealed the fossils since time immemorial.
A Valley of Whales in the Middle of Egypt’s Desert
Sunset at Wadi Al Hitan.
The site is so important that scientists argue that site reveals evidence for the history of one of the greatest mysteries in the evolution of whales: the species’ appearance as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal.
Today, the site is a desert with geological features that make it even more unique. But in the distant past, Wadi Al Hitan was a massive ocean where whales swam, hunted, and reproduced. As the site is dubbed, the Valley of the Whales is the most important site in the world to demonstrate the above-mentioned evolutionary process.
The way of life of these mammals is accurately portrayed during their evolution. The number, concentration, and quality of fossils are unique to Wadi Al Hitan, a time capsule providing evidence of millions of years of coastal marine life and evolution.
Among the many fossils, researchers have discovered the remains of whales like the Basilosaurus.
These remains show these animals losing their hind limbs and hydrodynamic bodies (like those of modern whales) while presenting primitive bone structure aspects. Other fossil materials found at the site allow the reconstruction of the environment and the ecological conditions of the time. Wadi Al Hitan portrays the form and way of life during the transition from land animals to ocean-going mammals.
The Fossilized remains of Whales at Wadi Al hitan.
Wadi Al Hitan, the Valley of Whales
Although the fossils discovered at the site may not be the oldest, their great density in the area and the quality of their preservation is to the degree that even some stomach contents have remained intact. Thanks to the discovery of fossils of other early animals like sharks, crocodiles, sawfish, turtles, and rays, scientists have been able to reconstruct the environmental and ecological conditions of the site accurately.
Some of the geological formations at the Valley of Whales.
The site and the first fossil skeletons of whales were discovered at the Valley of Whales in 1903. But for over 80 years, the site was forgotten, mostly due to the difficulty of accessing the site.
However, in the late 1980s, as all-wheel-drive- vehicles became widely available, people started visiting and documenting the site. Eventually, the Valley of Whales would attract scholars, fossil collectors, and even tourists. People would go there and collect fossils without properly documenting or conserving the fossils. This led to the disappearance of many fossils from the site, prompting warnings for the site to be adequately conserved.
A Treasure in the Valley of Whales
One of the most important discoveries at the site was the largest fossil discovered there, with 21 meters in length. The fossil showed clear traces of five-fingered flippers on its forelimbs and an unexpected existence of hind legs, feet, and toes, precisely unknown features in an archaeoceti. The site exceeds the values of similar sites in terms of the number, concentration, and quality of its fossils and their accessibility, found in an attractive and protected landscape.
The site includes an impressive assemblage of fossilized skeletons of Archaeoceti (primitive whales documenting cetacean transition to marine life), and sirenians. It also includes well-preserved reptile fossils and shark teeth dating back to around 40 million years ago. Scientists have identified the fossils of crocodiles, sea turtles, and the fossilized remains of sea snakes at the site. Many species of bony fish, sharks, and rays are represented at the site, but the largest number of fossils are isolated small teeth, which are often inconspicuous. There are also larger fish fossils, including the rostra and pegs of sawfish. The site features a sawfish rostrum of 1.8 meters long.
Wadi Al Hitan is also home to various fossilized shells and disc-shaped nummulite fossils. According to scientists, the strata in Wadi Al Hitan belong to Middle Eocene, including a vast mass of vertebrate fossils within 200 km2 of the desert. While researchers have identified many whale fossils, they have also cataloged and reported sea cows’ fossils, among over one hundred different fossils.
Reconstructing the Origins of Whales
Scientists could reconstruct their origin and conclude their form was serpentine and the animals were carnivorous. The site has been found to feature typical streamlined bodies from modern whales and shows us clear evidence of some of the primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure. In other words, the Valley of Whales in Egypt is a unique site not only because of its diverse fossil library but because of the examples of fossils and their respective age.
The site has managed to remain well-protected because not many people access it. It is believed that between 1500 and 2000, tourists visited the site, which is accessible through unpaved and unmarked desert roads.
The tourists who decide and come to the site are mostly foreigners who then camp in the valley. Wadi Al Hitan lies within the Wadi El Rayan Protected area, but part of the site has been turned into a tourist venue. There are walkways between the main fossils. Small shelters were also built at the site.
In addition to its vast collection of fossilized remains, Wadi Al Hitan is home to more than 15 different species of desert places and 15 different types of mammals, including the red fox and the Egyptian mongoose. The site is mostly frequented by the Gennec Foxes, who visit the campsite at night searching for food.
Rising temperatures and drought conditions have caused serious problems for human populations all over the world, according to the World Health Organization.
Those dramatic changes in landscape brought on by lowering water levels, though, have also led to a number of notable discoveries, as Insider notes.
One area particularly affected by drought has been the central Spanish province of Caceres, where water levels in the Valdecanas reservoir have dropped nearly 30%, and as a result, a fascinating site from near pre-history has been recovered, per Reuters.
Though that lack of water has caused a number of serious problems in the country, the archaeological site that reemerged from the water in Spain dates to around 5,000 B.C., as Reuters also notes.
The site, which up until recently was submerged, was discovered first in the 1920s, but it was lost when the area was flooded for a reservoir project under Franco’s leadership.
The chance to study the area once again is a rare opportunity for scientists, according to Madrid’s Complutense University archaeologist Enrique Cedillo (via Reuters).
THE SPANISH STONEHENGE WAS UNCOVERED
The archaeological site uncovered by the receding waters of Valdecanas reservoir near the city of Huelva consists of dolmens, or large neolithic stone structures, as well as a number of standing stones similar to England’s Stonehenge, according to CNN. For this reason, the area is officially called the Dolmen of Guadalperal, but it’s colloquially known as the Spanish Stonehenge. In total there are thousands of stones on the site, spread over some 1,500 acres.
What’s also notable about the Iberian complex is that experts estimate there are some 500 stones still standing at the Spanish Stonehenge. According to experts, they were put there at different points in history, beginning as early as 5000 B.C. up through 1000 B.C., as Live Science notes.
There are also coffin-shaped structures on the site called cists where researchers believe human remains were buried.
Similar sites were also likely used as memorials for the dead, but so far, no human remains have been verified.
THE SPANISH STONEHENGE COULD BE OLDER THAN OTHER SITES
A number of similar sites with similar stone structures are found across Europe, according to Britannica, but otherwise not much is known about those who built them.
It’s believed that such areas served a number of purposes for ancient peoples, both ritualistic and astronomic, among other potential explanations. It’s not possible to date the exact age of the stone, but the age of the sediment on the stone can be estimated with radiocarbon dating techniques (via The New York Times).
The sheer number of different types of stones and stone structures at the Spanish complex is particularly notable, and it’s believed to be possibly older than other similar areas so far studied.
Since the Spanish area was spotted in the 1920s and then flooded in the 1960s, it’s only been above water four times. Now that the “Spanish Stonehenge” is once more accessible, some advocate moving it permanently away from the flood area.
The Iberian Peninsula drought that contributed to the resurfacing of the Spanish Stonehenge is the worst of its kind in some 1,200 years. Scientists expect it will worsen, according to CNN.
Ruins of a 3000-year-old Armenian castle found in Lake Van – Turkey
Underwater ruins of Armenian castle in lake Van ( Anadolu Ajansı )
A team of Turkish archaeologists has discovered the remains of what is believed to be a 3,000-year-old castle from the Armenian kingdom of Urartu (Ararat) submerged underwater in Lake Van.
The underwater excavations were led by Van Yüzüncü Yıl University and the governorship of Turkey’s eastern Bitlis Province. The castle is said to belong to the Iron Age Armenian civilization also known as the Kingdom of Van, Urartu, Ararat, and Armenia.
The lake itself is believed to have been formed by a crater caused by a volcanic eruption of Mount Nemrut near the province of Van. The current water level of the reservoir is about 150 meters higher than it was during the Iron Age.
“Civilizations living around the lake set up large villages and settlements while the water level of the lake was low, but they had to leave the area after it increased again,”
said Tahsin Ceylan, one of the researchers of the newspaper.
The researchers are expecting to conduct further excavations to reveal the full scale of this discovery. The discovery is expected to attract tourism.
Although now within the borders of the Republic of Turkey, the Lake, and town of Van is the very heartland of Armenian civilization since times immemorial. In fact, so much so, that it is considered the very place where Armenian ethnic identity was first born. According to the records of the 5th-century Armenian historian Movses of Khorene, Hayk (the legendary founder of the Armenian nation) settled near Lake Van in 2492 BC where he first founded the village of Haykashen and build there the mighty fortress of Haykaberd.
At the very shores of Lake, Van Hayk assembled his army and told them that they must defeat the Babylonian tyrant king Bel who had marched against him and his people, or die trying to do so, rather than become his slaves. At Dyutsaznamart (meaning: “Battle of Giants”) near Lake Van, Hayk finally defeated Bel. Hereafter Hayk named the region where the battle took place after his own name and the site of the battle Hayots Dzor (meaning: “Valley of the Armenians”). Thus the Armenian nation and its first free kingdom were born on the very shores of Lake Van after which the Armenians call themselves ‘Hay’ and their country – ‘Hayk’ or ‘Hayastan’, in honor of the legendary founder Hayk.
The ancient Hittite inscriptions deciphered in the 1920s by the Swiss scholar Emil Forrer testify to the existence of a mountain country called ‘Hayasa’ and its vessel lying around Lake Van. The Annals of Mursili (14th century BC) describes the campaigns of Mursili against Hayasa:
And when I arrived in Tiggaramma, the chief cup-bearer Nuvanza and all the noblemen came to meet me at Tiggaramma. I should have marched to Hayasa still, but the chiefs said to me, ‘The season is now far advanced, Sire, Lord! Do not go to Hayasa.’ And I did not go to Hayasa.
Map of historic Armenian with Lake Van at its center. (from Encyclopædia Britannica Online)
It was exactly the works of Movses of Khorene that led to the initial discovery of the Armenian kingdom of Van (Urartu). The existence of this kingdom was unknown to science until the year 1823 when a French scholar, J. Saint-Martin, chanced upon a passage in the ‘History of Armenia’ by Movses of Khorene who had recorded the kingdom in great detail. Inspired by these writings Jean Saint-Martin sent a team to the described location and discovered a kingdom completely unknown to Western academia at the time.
Khorenatsi had described the ancient settlements in Van and attributed them to one of the descendants of Hayk; Ara the Beautiful son of Aram. His description exactly matched, the later discovered, Assyrian clay tablet attributing the foundation of the kingdom to the first king of Urartu; King Aram (c. 860 – 843 BC).
“Urartian history is part of Armenian history, in the same sense that the history of the ancient Britons is part of English history, and that of the Gauls is part of French history. Armenians can legitimately claim, through Urartu, an historical continuity of some 4000 years; their history is among those of the most ancient peoples in the world.”
– Mack Chahin, The Kingdom of Armenia, A History, 1987, revised in 2001
The lake was the center of the Armenian kingdom of Ararat from about 1000 BC, afterward of the Satrapy of Armenia, Kingdom of Greater Armenia, and the Armenian Kingdom of Vaspurakan. Along with Lake Sevan in today’s Armenia and Lake Urmia in today’s Iran, Lake Van was one of the three great lakes of the Armenian Kingdom, referred to as the Seas of Armenia. Its name “Van” is one of the ancient Armenian words for “town” which is still reflected in many Armenian toponyms such as Nakhichevan (meaning: “place/town of descend”), Stepananvan (meaning: “town of Stepan”), Vanadzor (meaning: “valley of Van” ), Sevan, and even the capitol city of Armenia; Yerevan.
Lake Van and its adjacent town also named Van is today part of Turkey, however, its historic Armenian traces are still visible. At the very center of this lake, there is an island called Akhtamar that still holds a thousand-year-old Armenian church; the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
Armenians lived in Van up until the early 20th century when Armenians were prosecuted by the Ottoman Turks during the Armenian Genocide. One of the last stands of the Armenian people known as the Resistance of Van, where over 55,000 Armenian civilians were massacred by Ottoman militias and bandits, was extensively discussed in newspapers of that time around the world.
The resistance occupies a significant place in Armenian national identity because it symbolizes the Armenians’ will to resist annihilation at the very heartland of the Armenian people.
General view of Akdamar (Akhtamar) Island and the Armenian cathedral of the Holy cross (915 AD).
Medieval Armenian gravestones, Lake Van.
An early 20th century picture of the 10th century Armenian monastery of Narekavank, which once stood near the southeastern shore of the lake.
