The walls of an Urartian fortress built 2,700 years ago were discovered in Van Province of Turkey, reported Anatolia Turk News.

Archeological excavations in Ayanis, which is located 38 kilometers from Van city, had started back in 1990.

Head of the expedition team, Mehmet Işıklı, stated that the fortress was destroyed by an earthquake, which was followed by a fire. 

“This surprised us a lot, since the walls of the fortress were destroyed by a strong earthquake, which did not affect the architectural image,” noted the archeologist. “We are talking about 7.2-magnitude earthquake that was recorded in Van in 2011.”

Van was the capital city of the ancient Armenian Kingdom of Urartu.