seamed with fissures and tunnelled with holes and caverns from
top to bottom.

[Illustration: 235.jpg THE ROCK AND CITADEL OF VAN AT THE PRESENT DAY]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.

The plateau in which it terminates, and which rises to a height of 300
feet at its loftiest point, is divided into three main terraces, each
completely isolated from the other two, and forming, should occasion
arise, an independent fortress, Ishpuinis, Menuas, Argistis, and
Sharduris II. had laboured from generation to generation to make this
stronghold impregnable, and they had succeeded in the attempt.

[Illustration: 236.jpg ENTRANCE TO THE MODERN CITADEL OF VAN FROM THE
WESTWARD]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.

There can be little or no doubt, however, that this is merely a variant
of the name usually written as Tuspas, Tuspana, Dhuspana, the Thospia of
classical times; properly speaking, it was the capital of Biainas. The
only access to it was from the western side, by a narrow bridle-path,
which almost overhung the precipice as it gradually mounted to the
summit. This path had been partially levelled, and flanked with walls
and towers which commanded the approach throughout its whole length;
on the platforms at the summit a citadel had been constructed, together
with a palace, temples, and storehouses, in which was accumulated a
sufficient supply of arms and provisions to enable the garrison to tire
out the patience of any ordinary foe; treason or an unusually prolonged
siege could only get the better of such a position. Tiglath-pileser
invested the citadel and ravaged its outskirts without pity, hoping, no
doubt, that he would thus provoke the enemy into capitulating. Day after
day, Sharduris, perched in his lofty eyrie, saw his leafy gardens laid
bare under the hatchet, and his villages and the palaces of his nobles
light up the country round as far as the eye could reach: he did not
flinch, however, and when all had been laid waste, the Assyrians set up
a statue of their king before the principal gate of the fortress, broke
up their camp, and leisurely retired. They put the country to fire and
sword, destroyed its cities, led away every man and beast they could
find into captivity, and then returned to Nineveh laden with plunder.
Urartu was still undaunted, and Sharduris remained king as before; but
he was utterly spent, and his power had sustained a blow from which
it never re