The Hoşap River or Güzelsu River () is a river in the
Van Province
Van Province (, , Armenian: Վանի մարզ) is a province and metropolitan municipality in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. Its area is 20,921 km2, and its population is 1,128,749 (2022). ...
of
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. Its catchment area approximately coincides with the
Gürpınar District.
Geography
From its source in the İspiriz Mountains near
Başkale
Başkale (, ) is a municipality and district of Van Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,727 km2, and its population is 44,168 (2022). The municipality Başkale was established in 1937. In the local elections of March 2019 Erkan Acar from the ...
on the southeast borders of Van Province, the river tends to the northwest. It is cut by the
Zernek Dam in the Gürpınar Plain and feeds into
lake Van
Lake Van (; ; ) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey in the provinces of Van Province, Van and Bitlis Province, Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a Salt lake, saline Soda lake, soda lake, receiv ...
near
Dönemeç. The part of the river flowing out of the dam is also called ''Dönemeç River''.
At the end of the river there is the Dönemeç Delta that extends into lake Van. The delta is used by birds during migration and is a breeding area of the endangered
White-headed duck
The white-headed duck (''Oxyura leucocephala'') is a small diving duck some long. The male has a white head with black crown, a blue bill, and reddish-grey plumage. The female has a dark bill and rather duller colouring. Its breeding habitat is ...
and
Caspian tern
The Caspian tern (''Hydroprogne caspia'') is a species of tern, with a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution. Despite its extensive range, it is monotypic of its genus, and has no accepted subspecies. The genus name is from Ancient Greek '' ...
.
The
river regime
In hydrology, discharge is the volumetric flow rate (volume per time, in units of m3/h or ft3/h) of a stream. It equals the product of average flow velocity (with dimension of length per time, in m/h or ft/h) and the cross-sectional area (in m ...
of the Hoşap is nival. The lowest flow is 1.3 m³/sec in August, September and October. The highest flow is 12.6 m³/sec in May due to the rains and melting of snow. The total annual flow of the river is 334,106 m³/year.
History
Historically, the Hoşap River is known as the ''Khoshab'' or ''Anggh'' River in Armenian.
[Water Potential af Hoşap River Basin and Recommendations for the Evaluation of this Potential, in: Turkish Studies, Vol.14 Issue 3 2019, pp.1225-1252.]
The
Urartians who lived in the region made the best use of water resources. They constructed the
Shamiram Canal from the Hoşap river to irrigate arable land around the Lake Van
Closed basin in order to practice intensive agricultural activities. A Urartian cuneiform inscription of a temple in
Çavuştepe
Sardurihinilli, also known as Haykaberd () or Çavuştepe Kalesi, is an ancient Urartian fortified site located on a ridge on the northeastern edge of the village of Çavuştepe in the Gürpınar district of Van Province in eastern Turkey. It ...
, a Urartian fortified site in the Hoşap valley, says:
This canal is one of the most remarkable Urartian mastery in water management.
[Veli Sevin, Aynur Özfirat, ''An Urartian Irrigation Canal in the Gürpınar Plain, Van, Eastern Turkey'', in: Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 59, 2022, pp. 5-17.]
References
Sources
* {{Cite book , last=Karapetyan , first=Samvel , title=Հայոց Ձոր , publisher=
Research on Armenian Architecture , year=2015 , isbn=9789939843216 , series= , location=Yerevan , language=hy , trans-title=Hayotsʻ Dzor , author-link=Samvel Karapetyan (author)
Landforms of Van Province
Rivers of Turkey