Tahsin Ceylan is one of the discoverers of the fortress on Lake Van
During a dive the November 11th A team of divers has found a fortress more than 3,000 years old in Turkey's largest lake in the east of the country.
This saline lake of volcanic origin, located 1,640 meters above sea level, is surrounded by mysteries and legends. That a fortress has appeared is no coincidence.
“We have been doing research on Lake Van for almost ten years. We have found Inci Kefali fish, corals, microbialites (living carbonate rock structures) or a **Russian military cargo ship built in 1915**. With my teammates we constantly collect information and carry out investigations”, explains to Traveler.es the underwater photographer and documentary filmmaker, Tahsin Ceylon , through an interview via email.
Lake Van is the largest in Turkey and is full of mysteries
The group of divers coordinated by Tahsin Ceylan (who requests to clarify that he does not have archaeologists in his team nor is he linked to any university despite what has been published in some media) hopes that his recent discovery attract historians and scientists to date and study it in depth.
“ The fortress is about a kilometer long and has a solid structure . It was mostly made with cut stones and we have found a drawing of a lion in one of them, which reinforces our theory that it could belong to the **kingdom of Urartu**”, says Ceylan.
Historical mysteries to explore at Lake Van
Its first objective is to study and protect the underwater historical wealth. “ The fortress can give a great boost to ecotourism in the area . We believe that Lake Van has great potential for diving. We will see dozens of diving schools and hundreds of divers arriving at the lake ”.
Lake Van is the largest soda water lake in the world . “ It has a percentage of 0.19% salinity and a very high sedimentation rate . It requires a special method of investigation to actually see and analyze objects. As an underwater photographer, I never touch or change locations while taking pictures.”
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Lake Van covers an area of 3,712 square kilometers.