Turkey: Hosap Castle
Here’s another medieval clifftop castle and this one is absolutely spectacular despite the fact that it’s completely abandoned, ruined, and closed – Hosap Castle. The castle was built in 1643 by a local Ottoman ruler on the steep rock that most likely had an earlier Urartian castle. The ornate emblem above the entrance gate gives the construction date. The castle is permanently closed officially, but a couple local kids opened it for us and guided us all around all the way through the dark dungeons and to the very top where you stand on a vertical cliff above the valley and the road below – this was totally an Indians Jones moment.
