Van (Urartu) Museum

The Van (Urartu) Museum is located in the city of Van, Republic of Turkey.

The museum was founded in 1932, the current museum is located adjacent to the Vani Fortress, which opened in 2019.

The museum exhibits artifacts from the Urartian, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Aghoyunlu (White Batknian), Karakoyunlu (Black Batknian), and Ottoman periods, which were located in and around Lake Van. It is known as the richest Urartian museum in the world.

The museum building was damaged during the 2011 Vani earthquake. Between 2012 and 2015, a new museum building was built by the Vani Governor on a flat site northeast of the Vani Fortress. The design of the new museum building, which is a single-story building built in a modern architectural style, was prepared by architect Bahadir Kul.

Exhibition and installation work at the museum began in 2017 and was completed in August 2019, and the new building was put into operation on August 27, 2019.

The museum, built on an area of 13,000 square meters, has 23 exhibition halls. In addition to the works, the museum also includes animated sections on the lifestyle and wars of the civilizations that ruled Van.

The museum's inventory includes 45,000 works. Of these, 2,542 are on display. Nine of the 23 halls of the new museum building contain artifacts from the Urartian period.