Visitors to eastern Turkey will now be able to experience the amazing 2,900-year-old ruins of Altintepe Fortress.
The fortress, which is located in Erzincan province on the historical Silk Road, is one of the most important Urartu settlements of the Byzantine Empire.
Slated to become an archaeological park once excavation work is completed, the castle is one of the most important remnants of the Urartian period, and a repository of hundreds of historical artifacts and ruins of structures erected in 850-590 BC. The video below gives you an idea of the construction and the importance of the fortress.
The excavations, carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Ataturk University, started in 2003 and was completed in 2019. Mehmet Karaosmanoglu, head of the Archeology Department at Ataturk University, told Anadolu Agency that adobe buildings from the Urartu period were destroyed due to earthquakes in the region.
“The reception hall in the castle, belonging to the Urartu period, is the largest and only example of those found in Anatolia so far.”
Also in the news from the dig, three tombs were found in the southern part of the site, he said, adding that the sarcophagi they contained were the sole and most beautiful specimens from the Urartu Kingdom.
Source: Israel Hayom