Kutts is one of the four islands of Lake Vana. They are now uninhabited. The water level of Lake Vana during the Armenian Kingdom of Urartu (first millennium BC) decreased due to global warming and it was found that there is a road at the bottom of the lake. The road out of the water was recently discovered and immediately attracted the attention of Cavusoglu’s team.

Rafet Çavuşoğlu, a professor of archeology at Yuzungju Yale University in Occupied Western Armenia, is the leader of the excavation team.

What is the path “to the world of light” and where does it lead? It is a one-kilometer stretch of road that connects the coast to the island, on which there were fortresses built during the Urartu period, as well as settlements that appeared in the Middle Ages.

The road was the width of a carriage, therefore it was one-way, it was paved with stones of different sizes, of which only the large ones remained. The purpose of the land route was to deliver food and basic necessities, as well as transport people, to the peninsula-turned-island.

In Turkish, the island is called Charpanak, in Armenian, Ktuts. Kuts is not the only island in the lake, there are three more. The islands are now uninhabited. And the important significance of Ktutz is that there was an Armenian monastery there. Its ruins have been preserved to this day.

Yesterday, online periodicals operating in Eastern Armenia (Armenia Habar, Aravot) shared a video with the following title: The ancient road passed under water near Ktuts Island of Lake Vana.

Western Armenia TV informs that the video is four years old.

Let’s remind that over time, as we already know, the road leading to Ktutz Island was submerged, but it became visible during the shallowing of the lake, so archaeologists knew about its existence. The opportunity to study the road in detail has only now arisen, after a drought hit the region in 2019-2021 and the lake began to shallow. It would be logical to assume that the Turkish side could have offered Armenian archaeologists to participate in the research, but there was no such invitation.