Van

Van, a walled town of Turkey in Asia, capital of a vilayet, stands near the south-eastern shore of Lake Van, 145 miles SE. of Erzerum. Once the capital of an Armenian kingdom, it is situated in a very fertile plain on the borders of Armenia and Kurdistan, contains mostly mud-houses of two stories, and narrow, dirty streets, and has some manufactures. Pop. 35,000, mainly Turks, with some Armenians and Kurds. It claims to have been the 'city of Semiramis.'—The LAKE OF VAN is a considerable inland sea, 80 miles long and about 30 in breadth; area, 1200 sq. m. It has no visible outlet. In its brackish waters a kind of bleak is caught, salted, and exported.