trade of Van has declined; European goods, with which the bazaars
are fairly well supplied, come from Trebizond through Erzerum.
There is a fair local trade in wheat and agricultural produce, also
sheep and cattle, wool, hides and furs for export. A thick woollen
cloth called shayak, coarse cotton chintzes and a kind of soap
prepared from the efflorescence's of the lake, with dried and salted
fish, are also produced.
The cuneiform inscriptions of Van are very numerous, the town having been the capital of the Vannic kingdom of the Assyrian period. At the end of the Gardens is the rocky mass of Toprak Kale, on which was a. fire temple and altar; near it is the Meker Kapusi (“Door of Mithridates”), a large inscribed slab of rock with the names of several deities. On the citadel rock are several inscriptions, the principal being a trilingual one of Xerxes on the southern face. Many other inscribed stones and tablets have been found built into modern buildings, while the excavation of a mound brought to light relics of a stone age.
Van occupies the site of Dhuspas, of which the native name was Biainas (Assyrian, Urardhu), the Byana of Ptolemy and the Ivan of Cedrenus, whence the modern Van. Dhuspas, the Thospia of Ptolemy, gave its name to the district of Thospitis, the modern Thosp. The Biainian dynasty, of which Sarduris I. (c. 833 B.C.) was the first king, died out with Sarduris II., who in 645 B.C. entered into an alliance with Assur-bani-pal. Inscriptions of nearly all the kings exist, and the various excavations at Toprak Kale show an advanced state of civilization and great technical skill (see illustrations in Maspero's Histoire ancienne, vol. iii., Les Empires). In the 6th century B.C. Van passed into the hands of the Persians, and shortly before it fell to Alexander the Great it was rebuilt, according to Armenian historians, by a native prince called Van. In 149 B.C. Valarsaces or Vagharshag, the first Armenian king of the Arsacidae, rebuilt the town, and a colony of Jews was settled in it by Tigranes (94-56 B.C.). In the middle of the 4th century A.D. it was taken by Sapor (Shapur) II., and became the capital of an autonomous province of the Sassanian Empire, until it fell into the hands of the Arabs (c. 640), under whom it regained its autonomy. About 908 the governor of Van or Vaspuragan was crowned king by the caliph Moktadir, and in 1021 his descendant Senekherim was persuaded by Basil II. to exchange his kingdom for the vice royalty of the Sebasteian theme. After having formed part of the possessions of the Seljuks, Mongols, Tatars and Persians, Van passed in 1 514, after the defeat of Shah Ismail by Selim I. at the battle of Kalderan, to the Osmanlis, who only occupied the town in 1543. In 1636 it was taken by the Persians, but soon recovered. In 1845 the town was held for a time by the Kurd chief Khan Mahmud, who eventually surrendered and was exiled.
(2) The vilayet of Van lies along the Persian frontier between the vilayets of Erzerum and Mosul. The northern sanjak comprises open plateau country N. and E. of the lake (with a large Armenian agricultural population and Kurdish semi nomad tribes occupied chiefly in cattle and sheep raising), also of several fertile districts along the south shore of the lake. The southern sanjak is entirely mountainous, little developed and having the tribes only partly under government control. This comprises most of the upper basin of the Great Zab, with the country of the Nestorian Christians and many districts inhabited by Kurdish tribes, some of them large nomad tribes who descend for the winter to the plains of the Tigris.
The mineral wealth of the vilayet has never been fully explored, but is believed to be great. There are petroleum springs at Kordzot, deposits of lignite at Sivan and Nurduz, several hot springs at Zilan Deresi and julamerk. Excellent tobacco is grown in Shemsdinan for export to Persia.
(3) Lake Van, called Arsissa Palus and also Thospitis from its Armenian names, is roughly rectangular 5 5 m. long and 40 broad, with a long north-eastern arm which increases the greatest length to 80 m. It stands about 5260 ft.” above sea-level. It is without an outlet, and its greatest depth is along the southern shore. It has constant steady fluctuations, rising and falling some 8 ft. in a periodic movement of five years. In the middle of the 19th century a sudden rise submerged several places on the banks, including Arjish Kale, and the waters did not again subside. The north-eastern arm is much shallower than the rest. The water is bitter and undrinkable, being largely impregnated with carbonate and sulphate of soda with some borax. The salts are evaporated in pans, and called perek, being sold for washing purposes. There is, however, good water along the coast from springs and streams.
The lake has been navigated from the earliest times, and about 80 sailing boats, carrying about 20 tons burden, now ply on it, chiefly with wheat and firewood. Severe storms make navigation dangerous in winter. The southern shore is fringed by a steep range of mountains, with several thriving villages along the coast. The hills have now been almost denuded of trees. At the south-eastern corner is the island of Akhtamar with its ancient church, erected (c. 928) by Gagig, first king of the Ardzrunian dynasty. The Catholicos of Akhtamar is one of the highest offices in the Armenian Church, and dates from 1113. The small islands of Lim and Gdutz have also monasteries and churches. Large numbers of darekh, a kind of herring, exist in the lake, and are caught in nets from boats or when they enter the shallow lagoons in the spring and summer. Either fresh or salted they form an important article of diet of the poorer people.
See Sayce, “Cuneiform Inscriptions of Lake Van,” in Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vols. xiv., xx. and xxvi.; Lynch, Armenia, vol. ii. (1901); Belck and Lehmann, papers in Verhand. d. Berliner Ges. für Anthrgpologie (1892-99); Zeit. far Ethnologie (1892, 1899); Mitt. d. Geog. es. (amburg, 1898, 1899). (C. W. W.; F. R. M.)
VAN, an homonymous word, whose different meanings have no etymological connexion. In the most common sense “van”
is merely an abbreviation of the Oriental word “caravan” (q.v.),
and is applied to any large covered cart or vehicle used for the
conveyance of goods, especially furniture, or, on railways, to a
closed carriage for passengers' luggage, or for the accommodation
of the guard. In the sense of the front portion of an army
or fleet, or the, advanced portion of any body, actually or metaphorically,
“van” represents the French avant (Lat. ab ante), in
front, as in avant-garde, van-guard, the earliest form in which the
word came into English. Lastly, the word is used as a variant of
“fan” (Lat. vannus), for a contrivance for winnowing grain, for
a bird's wing, and in mining to an appliance for separating ore
by washing.
VANADINITE, a mineral consisting of lead chloro-vanadate,
(PbCl)Pb4(VO4)3, crystallizing in the hexagonal system and
isomorphous with pyromorphite and mimetite (q.v.). The
crystals are usually six-sided prisms terminated by the basal
planes, but are sometimes modified by numerous pyramidal
planes which exhibit parallel hemihedrism. Rounded crystals
and groups also occur. The colour is usually light brown or
yellow, but crystals from Arizona are bright red. Owing to
isomorphous replacement of the vanadium by phosphorus
and arsenic, the specific gravity varies from 6.6 to 7.2; a
variety containing much arsenic is called endlichite. The
hardness is 3. The mineral is one of secondary formation in
veins of lead ore. It was first found in Mexico, and in 1801
was asserted to contain a new element, which was called
"erythronium"; this was later proved to be identical with
the subsequently discovered element vanadium. Other well-known
localities are Wanlockhead in Dumfriesshire, Kappel
(Eisen-Kappel), near Klagenfurt in Carinthia, Arizona and
New Mexico.
(L. J. S.)
VANADIUM [symbol, V; atomic weight, 51.2 (O=16)], a
metallic chemical element. It was first mentioned in 1801 by
M. del Rio (Gilb. Ann., 1801, 71, p. 7), but subsequently thought by him to be an impure chromium. Later, it was examined by N. G. Sefstrom, who found it in the slags of the Taberg iron ores (Pogg. Ann., 1830, 21, p. 48), by J. J. Berzelius (ibid., 1831, 22, p. 1), and finally by Sir H. Roscoe (Trans. Roy. Soc, 1868-1870), who showed that the supposed vanadium obtained by previous investigators was chiefly the nitride or an oxide of the element. In his researches, Roscoe showed that the atomic weight of the metal as determined by Berzelius and the formulae given to the oxides were incorrect, and pointed out that the element falls into its natural place in group V of the periodic classification along with phosphorus and arsenic, and not in
the chromium group where it had originally been placed.
In small quantities, vanadium is found widely distributed.
