Near the village of Mescidli in Muş province, eastern Türkiye, an archaeologist has identified a walled settlement of about 120,000 square meters, roughly the size of 17 football fields, with walls that can be traced for about 1.4 kilometers. Melik Mirbey Ömeroğlu says the fortress may date to around 3,000 years ago and raises the possibility that it is Arzashkun, the royal city of King Arame.
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The identification is a hypothesis, not a finding. Nothing at the site has yet been dated by excavation, and the report is explicit that size, location and masonry do not identify the place by name. What the survey does establish is that a large, deliberately fortified settlement stands in a region where Assyrian kings once campaigned, and that it went unrecorded until satellite imagery drew attention to it.
How satellite imagery led to a fortress
Ömeroğlu first noticed lines and structural patterns in satellite imagery that did not match the natural terrain, according to Arkeonews’ report on the discovery. He then walked the ground, where the walls appeared only as scattered, fragmented sections that could easily pass for natural rock formations.
Tracing the remains across the landscape showed that they belonged to one large fortified settlement. The scale suggests a place that needed extensive defenses, internal organization and access to water, rather than a minor outpost. The report treats that combination of defenses, internal planning and water access as the clearest sign that the place mattered. He has applied to the Van Regional Board for the Protection of Cultural Heritage to have the site officially registered and protected.
Cyclopean masonry and a circular feature in the south
The walls are built of massive stone blocks in cyclopean and polygonal style, a technique Ömeroğlu compares with the Early Iron Age sites of Aşağı Anzaf and Zivistan in the Van region. Architectural traces remain visible inside the northern part of the enclosure, and a large circular feature about 25 meters in radius sits in the south, possibly tied to water management, though its function is unclear.
The national heritage record agrees on the basics. The Kültür Envanteri entry for Mescitli Castle, which spells the village name differently, gives the same 120,000 square meter area and 1.4 kilometer wall length and credits Ömeroğlu with identifying it in 2026 through satellite imagery and fieldwork. It says the site may date to the Early Iron Age, possibly the early Urartu period, but that excavation is still needed to confirm the date and any link to the Urartu Kingdom.
Future work could use pottery, radiocarbon samples and architectural sequences to pin down a date. Each method answers a different question: pottery and radiocarbon samples give an age, while the sequence of walls and rooms shows how the fortress was built and rebuilt over time. An inscription would be especially valuable, the report says, because it could settle questions that stone alone cannot. Without one, the case for any particular name has to rest on comparison with other Early Iron Age fortresses and on how well the layout matches what Assyrian accounts imply about a royal city.
Why Arzashkun, and why it has never been found
Arzashkun is known only from Assyrian texts. The Annals of Shalmaneser III describe it as the royal city of Arame, and during a campaign in 856 BCE the Assyrian king claimed his forces destroyed it before facing Arame’s army. Shalmaneser III’s reign ran from 859 to 824 BCE and included repeated attacks on Urartu, among them Sugunia and Arzashkun. Arame left no known royal inscriptions, so what is known of him comes from Assyrian sources.
Proposed locations for Arzashkun include areas around Lake Van, Malazgirt and toward the Lake Urmia basin, and the report says it still survives only in ancient Assyrian records. No excavation has tied any candidate to the name, which is why Ömeroğlu’s suggestion is framed as a possibility to be tested rather than an answer. The Kültür Envanteri entry cautions that any connection to the early settlement of Arzaskun, whose location is unknown, remains unproven.
Arzashkun also predates Tushpa, the modern city of Van, which later became the political center of the Urartian kingdom. According to the Urartu overview, King Sarduri, the first ruler of that name, moved the capital to Tushpa, and the earlier capitals were Sugunia and then Arzashkun. That sequence is why a fortress from the formative period could matter far beyond its walls.
The report notes that the fortress may also belong to the formative period of the Urartian kingdom. In that window, Arame’s reign, dated around 860 to 843 BCE in the overview, is when the loose league of Nairi states unified into one kingdom, and Shalmaneser III captured his capitals. If excavation ever confirms the link, the site would sit at the point where a scattering of tribes and states became a kingdom.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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