Footnote 1 – Destinations: The Impregnable Rock of Van

Urartian’s only known relative is Hurrian, spoken by peoples who entered northern Mesopotamia around the end of the fourth millennium B.C. The central Hurrian city of Urkesh (Tel Mozan, Syria) was identified about ten years ago by UCLA archaeologist Giorgio Buccellati. In the mid-second millennium B.C., Hurrian peoples formed the powerful kingdom of Mittani in northern Syria.