Odzaberd Fortress

The Urartian fortress Teyshebani or Odzaberd is located on the shore of Sevan Lake, near Tsovinar village. On a rock cuneiform, left by Urartu king- Rusa I, son of Sarduri, there is a mention that he conquered the fortress that existed here.

It's supposed that he built a new fortress in this place- in the name of god Teysheba. From cuneiform, it also becomes clear that Rusa I didn't conquer these places easily. "He came in the year of tribute collecting, built these castles in this wonderful country and the city of god Teysheba. I built it for the power of Bainili and for the siege of enemy countries"- the King wrote. The fortress built on the southern shore of the lake was the most important supporting and defensive point. Research showed that Odzaberd was a fortress city, that consisted of a fortress and a settlement, which were individually surrounded by protective walls. Odzaberd was built on an inaccessible plateau, the rocky slopes of which look at Lake Sevan. On the east side, the slopes of the hill are steep and on the west they are temperate, that's why the fortress is fortified with higher and larger towers and buttresses on this side. The king of Urartu, captured this important strategic point, which probably closed the road to the south-east and east of the lake, like Lchashen fortress prevented the enemy from moving to the southern shore of the lake, here he established his military base - rebuilding the cyclopean fortress in accordance with the military art of Urartu. The fortress city occupied an area of 18 ha, the fortress itself is 1.5 ha. The preserved walls of the fortress have a thickness of 3.2 m and are built of unhewn stones, in some places there are even preserved traces of a cyclopean fortress that existed before. The fortress was probably provided with water, which was brought from numerous springs of Vardenis mountains.
B.B. Piotrovsky wrote, "Usually, for a fortress, a place of a mountain ledge, which was close to a mountain river or spring was chosen, and water was delivered through stone or clay pipes to the fortress".
Thus, Teisheba fortress was a powerful point of Van kingdom, which held in his hands the local tribes being located on the shores of Sevan Lake.