Note 83 — Chapter IV · VAN

The citadel crowns the summit of the isolated ridge which forms the northern side of the fortified town. This is the famous rock of Van (Fig. 129). It rises to the height of about 300 feet from level land on all sides. The ridge is narrow in proportion to its length, and has a direction a few points north of an east-west line. In shape it has been compared to the back of a camel, the citadel occupying the hump. The sides of the mass, which is composed of a limestone so hard that it resists a knife, are most precipitous on the south. They are most amenable at the western and eastern extremities. The remains of an ancient wall with inscriptions of Sarduris the First may be discovered at the western end. The wall was probably protracted to the lake in the neighbourhood of the present harbour. There are no houses on the north side. The ground in that direction is waste or disposed for pasture; and a little marsh adjoins in one part the base of the rock. We tried our best, but in vain, to obtain permission to visit the citadel. The Pasha was powerless and the Commandant obdurate. The majority of modern travellers have met with the same refusal, due, no doubt, to a desire to hide the nakedness of the place. The blandishments of Schulz, as well, perhaps, as the hopes he held out of discovering treasure, were successful in effecting a temporary breach in the tradition of official obstinacy. He was admitted within the gate of the inmost fortress, to find it occupied by a garrison of two living creatures—an old janissary and a tame bear. Later visitors, more privileged than ourselves, tell of a few obsolete cannon. The disappointment which is engendered by the attitude of the authorities may be appreciated by the fact that the caves of Khorkhor and other antiquities are included within the fortified area. I have endeavoured in the accompanying note83 to offer some description of them, largely at second hand. The general impression which we may receive is that the ancient works upon the ridge belie the hopes excited by the account contained in the pages of Moses of Khorene. They do not amount to much more than a few groups of chambers excavated in the rock. The purpose which these caves served was almost certainly that of tombs; though they may also have been used as refuges in time of war. It must, however, be remembered that all the ancient structures upon the rock have long since been destroyed. The same fate has befallen even the staircases. Some of the recesses appear to have been destined to receive bas-reliefs; and if such may have been the case, these images have been demolished. Yet enough remains, especially the elegant characters of the many inscriptions, to fill the mind with admiration of that old race and vanished culture. They were certainly not lacking in the instincts of imagination; and, year by year, they must have taken pleasure in gazing out upon the landscape from the grottos constructed to receive them when they died. A people of Cyclopean walls, embossed shields and chariots, they would almost seem to have belonged to the race of giants, preceding the evolution of fox-like man.