Van Gölü

Van Gölü is a large lake located in Doğu Anadolu. In sources from Antiquity and Late Antiquity, it is one of the main geographical reference points frequently used to locate the surrounding peoples and administrative regions.

Sources from Antiquity

Sources from Antiquity describe the habitats of some peoples to the east and northeast of the lake; especially sources referring to Alexander the Great's campaigns in Iran mention the tribes living in this geography, and analyses in the literature suggest that these tribes were the ancestors of the ancient Kurds (Cilt 1, s. 20). In this context, the historical geography of Mardia, Media, Kardukhia (Corduene, Korduk/Korçeyk and Beth Qardu), Adiyabene, and Armenia is associated with the Kurds both historically and socio-culturally (Cilt 1, s. 20).

Armenian Sources and Mardastan

In Armenian sources, up until Late Antiquity, there were two distinct Mardastan regions in Armenia: the first Mardastan was localized from the northeast of Van Gölü towards Azerbaycan and present-day Iran, while the other was the region referred to as "original Mardastan" in the area extending from the west of Gürpınar Ovası (Hayot Jor), a district of Van today, to Başkale (Cilt 1, s. 78). The Mardastan mentioned by Ełishe is the Mardastan located to the east of the lake; Ełishe also speaks of the Mardoyali region located in northeastern Armenia (Cilt 1, s. 78).

Mardi Tribe

According to Tacitus's work Annales, the Mardi tribe controlled certain areas in Armenia; during the Roman general Corbulo's campaign in Armenia in AD 59, the local population took refuge in the high parts of the mountains and in caves, and the Mardis were also subjected to the violence of the Roman army (Cilt 1, s. 48). Curtius, on the other hand, states that the Mards had a completely different culture from the Persians, lived in artificial caves in the mountains for shelter, and primarily fed on meat (Cilt 1, s. 46).

The South of the Lake: Korduk

The south of the lake also appears as a distinct geography in the sources. Moses Khorenatsi uses the term "Korduats'i" for the region south of Van Gölü and refers to a mountainous region south of the lake as Korduk (Cilt 1, s. 77). The Korçeyk region was located to the east of Mokk/Miks (Bahçesaray) and was a vast geography encompassing Korduk and the lower, middle, and upper Kordrik regions; this is the broader-scale Armenian equivalent of the region referred to as Kardukhia and Corduene in classical sources, extending to the north and east (Cilt 1, s. 80).