OTTOMAN CASTLE (BEACH CASTLE)

ALocated in Kale District, which is named after the castle, it is located on the Lake Van Coast in the southeast of the old castle. In the rectangular fortress there are two mosques belonging to the Ottoman period and a ruined bathhouse. The inner part of the castle is divided into two parts by the walls, which turn the three sides of a small inner castle called davulhane. The inscriptions at the gates of the fortress were built by Yavuz Sultan Selim after the 1514 Çaldıran expedition and later expanded by Kanuni Sultan Süleyman. The walls of the new fortress are partly intact and there is no trace of the ditch that surrounds the fortress and the castle and the pier known to be near the lake. The harp boats in the boathouse on the lake shore provided the castle with safety. The area within the boundary of the Ottoman Castle is the Urban + Archaeological Site.