Among the treasures of the beautiful Artske / Adilcevaz, located on the northwestern shores of Lake Van, the fortress of Kef / Khaldi has a special place, this important Urartian heritage. Although the common name of the fortress is Kef, in later times it was also called Ankhavat Fortress, perhaps realizing that it was not a structure of the religions they were familiar with. Built by Rusa II in the 7th century BC, it was called the city of Khaldi. It can be said that we are dealing not only with a fortress in the classical sense, but with a fortress city, where we see not only fortress walls, a temple, but also other structures. Although Kef is close to Artske, but about 200 meters above the waters of Van, it has a rather difficult-to-reach location, but when you manage to reach the fortress area, an unreal beauty awaits you. First, the views: on one side the Artsken and the Van Sea, on the other side the Sipan Mountain, and on the other the Skanchelagorts Monastery. We also add to the stunning views what is on site. A Sus-type temple, the stone processing of which gives the impression that at that very moment the most serious modern device was cutting the stone with great care. Indeed, with this level of stone processing, Kef is an exceptional example of not only Urartian, but also world historical heritage.
In the #Unseen series, we tell about little-known, but extremely valuable monuments of Armenian (also regional) heritage, as well as nature, which are the result of more than 10 years of research by Gevorg Petrosyan and Hamshen Tour.
