Unearthed Urartian fortress near Turkey

A 120,000 square meter Urartian fortress remained hidden near a village in eastern Turkey. Its walls extend over 1.4 kilometers. No excavation has yet begun. In August 2026, according to a dispatch from the Turkish agency İhlas, archaeologist Melik Mirbey Ömeroğlu identified a fortified enclosure of considerable size near the village of Mescidli in the province of Muş. The discovery was made through satellite images, without any shovel having been planted in the ground. The identified Urartian fortress would revive the search for Arzaşkun, the royal capital of the first Urartian state, whose location is unknown today and whose appearance is also unknown.

Fortress layout and features

The fortress covers approximately 120,000 square meters. Its walls indeed extend over nearly 1.4 kilometers, around a promontory that is almost entirely surrounded by water. They stand up to two meters high on the interior side. On the exterior side, the slope carries the blocks up to four meters. Toward the north of the site, traces of buildings emerge, but they are too eroded to follow their layout. Further south, a circular depression with a radius of about twenty meters is more intriguing. Small stones cover the bottom. The Turkish archaeologist sees a reserve intended for the water supply of the garrison, although he cannot prove it before drilling. The walls themselves remain the most telling indicator for those who want to date the entire site.

Cyclopean construction and historical context

These walls rest on large blocks only slightly quarried, assembled in irregular polygons. Specialists call this construction of very large stones cyclopean. It is found thus at Aşağı Anzaf and at Zivistan. These two fortresses in the neighboring province of Van date back to the beginning of the Iron Age. The Van region formed then the heart of the Urartian kingdom. Between the ninth and seventh centuries BCE, this state rivaled with Assyria. The Mescidli site is however more to the west. It occupies the axis along which the Urartian sovereigns expanded their territory. The Urartian road, one of the first organized road networks of the ancient world, borders it in addition.

Historical references and uncertainties

The annals of Assyrian king Salmanazar III mention Arzaşkun as the royal city of Arame, the first known sovereign of Urartu. They describe its capture during a campaign conducted in 856 BCE. The Assyrian scribes however give neither distance nor direction. The location of this royal city thus remains elusive to archaeologists. Nothing currently links the city of Arzaşkun to the promontory of Muş. No ceramics have been dated. Carbon 14, however, has received no samples. This estimate to 3,000 years is based solely on the similarity of the walls with other fortresses in the region. The identification with the lost capital remains a working hypothesis, which its author presents as pending further research.

Protection and future steps

The archaeologist has submitted a registration request to the Van council responsible for the protection of cultural assets. However, an inscription would protect the site from plowing and illegal excavations. The inhabitants of Mescidli still cultivate the surrounding land. The council must now review the file, whose opinion conditions the first drilling.