Hoşap Castle

Perched dramatically atop a craggy outcrop in the wild eastern reaches of Anatolia, Hoşap Castle is one of Turkey's most striking yet least visited fortifications. Located in the village of Güzelsu in the Gürpınar district of Van Province, this seventeenth-century stronghold rises from the rocks like a stone serpent, its ramparts coiling along the natural ridge above the Hoşap River. For travellers willing to venture beyond the well-worn tourist circuits of western Turkey, the castle...