Hoşap Castle

Hoşap Castle is a large medieval castle located in the village of Güzelsu, Gürpınar District, Van Province, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is at a distance of approximately 50 km to the city center of Van. Most of the surviving structure was built in 1643 by Sarı Süleyman Bey, chief of the Kurdish Mahmudi tribe. Hoşap or Xoşabê means "beautiful water" in KurdishThe former town of Hoşap lay on the flat ground north of the castle rock and in the enclosed space on the opposite side of the castle from the road; the present village extends into this space. The town was defended at one corner by the castle and elsewhere by a wall, which originally started from the ends of the castle’s two cliffs. Built of mud, and toothed with the remains of mud battlements, the wall of the early Ottoman period can still be seen in stretches.