Urartu thumb|Inscription of Xerxes the Great on the cliffs below Van castle Under the ancient name of Tushpa, Van was the capital of the Urartian kingdom in the 9th century BCE. The early settlement was centered on the steep-sided bluff now known as Van Castle (Van Kalesi), close to the edge of Lake Van and a few kilometers west of the modern city. Urartian cuneiform inscriptions dating to the 8th and 7th centuries BCE have been found here. The name 'Van' comes from the Urartian endonym Biaina.Edmund Herzig, Marina Kurkchiyan, The Armenians: Past And Present In The Making Of National Identity, p. 31.
Urartu thumb|Inscription of Xerxes the Great on the cliffs below Van castle Under the ancient name of Tushpa, Van was the capital of the Urartian kingdom in the 9th century BCE. The early settlement was centered on the steep-sided bluff now known as Van Castle (Van Kalesi), close to the edge of Lake Van and a few kilometers west of the modern city. Urartian cuneiform inscriptions dating to the 8th and 7th centuries BCE have been found here. The name 'Van' comes from the Urartian endonym Biaina.Edmund Herzig, Marina Kurkchiyan, The Armenians: Past And Present In The Making Of National Identity, p. 31.