Hoşap Castle Hoşap Castle ( ) is a large medieval castle in the village of Hoşap ( literally in Kurdish meaning : Good or Sweet Water ) , official name Güzelsu , Van , located in Gürpınar District , Van Province , Eastern Anatolia , Turkey . Most of the surviving structure was built by a local Kurdish lord named Mahmudi Suleyman in 1643 . The former town of Hoşap lay on the flat ground north of the castle rock and in the enclosed space on the opposite side of the castle from the road ; the present village extends into this space . The town was defended at one corner by the castle and elsewhere by a wall , which originally started from the ends of the castle ’ s two cliffs . Built of mud , and toothed with the remains of mud battlements , the wall of the early Ottoman period can still be seen in stretches . On the north of the former town it now starts from a point beyond but the line of the cliff , near the Van road and extends along a natural ridge eastwards . From the castle ’ s southerly cliff the wall crosses the low saddle to the north - east . The two walls meet at the summit of the next hill , in order to keep control of all the land commanding the town . Beyond this hill ’ s summit stretches a seemingly empty expanse of low , spreading hills . Description . The castle ’ s rock rises on its south - west side in a high vertical cliff above the village and road ( Pls . 34 , 35 ) . A single wall runs above this cliff and above the cliff descending on the south - east from the south , the highest , corner . The easier ground spreading downwards in the angle between the two walls is defended by three separate lines of wall . The inner of these is really part of a short of oval keep which crowns the southerly end of the south - west side of the rock . From the village one walks over a three - arched bridge built in courses of black and white stone , apart from the balustrades and a few courses to right and left of the two outer arches . From the smaller width and height of the two end arches one might have expected a humped roadway ; but in fact a level . The greater frequency of black courses between the arches and the lower height of the uppermost black course on the east side ( by the castle ) may be an attempt at a suggestion of a humped roadway . The bridge ’ s style belongs with that of some Ottoman buildings in the district and in Upper Mesopotamia , and it was built by a Kurdish emir of Hoşap , Zaynal Bey , in 1671 . The way leads , over the north - west extension of the castle rock , round the castle , to the bulky entrance tower on the north - east , whose door looks north along the wall . Above the door here are two lions either side of a tear - drop , and , below , an inscription panel inside a frame of partly honeycomb pattern ( Pl . 37 ) . The inscription shows that the entrance tower was built , probably with several other parts of the castle , by an emir of Hoşap , Süleyman , in 1649 . Two blind arches , one inside the other , enclose both the black - and - white frame surrounding these and the door below . One goes through a dark entrance chamber , turning two right - angles , and climbs up a long covered way . The path then doubles back in order to go through the gate in the middle wall . Above again stands the keep , whose shape is managed by means of a series of straight stretches of wall . Its most rounded end is towards the north . The whole of the interior looks to have been covered by a roof on wooden rafters . Many of the inner wall surfaces have kept their plaster . Two very slim semi - circular towers stand in the wall overlooking the village . The southerly of these turns out to resemble , on the inside , a dovecot , but the holes are apparently for watching the road . Between the two round towers is a solid tower projecting inwards only . There are some remains of buildings ( a mosque , hamam , store and others ) below the keep on the side overlooking the village ( south - west ) . After the last emir was expelled the castle was used to quarter a military detachment until at least the late 19th century and the commandant was housed in the keep . Keep . The floor of its upper storey was just below a series of triangular niches which project outside . In these niches are small slits for rifles and slam holes in the floor ( machicolation ) . The crenellations above could not have been used except to confuse an enemy , as firing would have required one ’ s feet to be half - way up one of the embrasure - niches . There are then three storeys below these , the one immediately below having , at the nw . , two levels of windows . The s . half of the keep ’ s e . side is rebuilt . Small , neat , originally well - fitted blocks were used ( lower level only ) on the outside : the rest of the keep is built of crudely hacked blocks of similar size . Intermediate wall . The easterly stretch , facing away from the road , has relatively small towers , and the layout , bur probably not the present masonry , may well be that of a medieval Armenian original . Continuing w . of the gate , a now cut - off section of former wall survives above a section of deep ditch . Beyond again the wall ’ s masonry changes height and four broad semi - circular towers ( that at the e . corner ( Pl . 36 ) is a ¾ circle ) place it in Ottoman period . Again embrasures and small slits ( but no machicolation ) for rifles . The same two types of masonry as before are represented . The cruder type predominates , but much of the wall between the entrance tower and the nw . - facing tower at the n . corner is of the neater sort . Stages of construction . The Armenian original may have had only two walls , one on the site of the keep and one on the line of the intermediate wall . In the first reconstruction of the Ottoman period ( in 1649 : crude masonry , except for entrance tower ) the outer wall was built or possibly rebuilt : the keep certainly , and the intermediate wall probably , were rebuilt . A repair followed ( perhaps after 1650 ) in the neatest stone , including part of the outer curtain n . of the entrance - tower and a small expanse in the keep . ( 1978 * )