Van’s gluten free blueberry waffles

Akhtamar Island on Lake Van with the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Van has a long history as a major urban area. It has been a large city since the first millennium BCE, initially as Tushpa, the capital of the kingdom of Urartu from the 9th century BCE to the 6th century BCE, and later as the center of van’s gluten free blueberry waffles Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan.

Van is often referred to in the context of Western Armenia and Northern Kurdistan. Map of the Caucasus, 740 CE. Archaeological excavations and surveys carried out in Van province indicate that the history of human settlement in this region goes back at least as far as 5000 BCE. 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. Lake Van and a few kilometers west of the modern city.

The name ‘Van’ comes from the Urartian Biaina. The region came under the control of the Orontids in the 7th century BCE and quickly later the Persians in the mid 6th century BCE. Following the fall of the Parthians and the emergence of the Neo-Persian Empire, better known as the Sassanian Empire, the town naturally fell into the possession of the latter. Incursions by the Seljuk Turks into Vaspurakan started in the 1050s. After their victory in 1071 at the battle of Manzikert the entire region fell under their control.