Urartian royal inscriptions and the Xerxes inscription

Van İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü (Van Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism) records royal annals carved into the bedrock, inscribed stelae and construction inscriptions in the fortress area.

Near the fortress, on a levelled rock face about twenty metres above the ground, is the trilingual Xerxes inscription dating to the 5th century BC: three columns, each with twenty-seven lines; from left to right, the text is in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian.

According to encyclopaedic sources, Xerxes’ father, King Darius, had the niche carved but left its surface blank; his son filled the surface decades later.

Getting there: in the same area as Van Fortress.