City Van, Türkiye
Cats in Van
The actual Van cats, white with one blue eye and one amber, at the university research centre by the lake they are named for, in the far east of Türkiye. Every white cat in Istanbul is called one of these. These are the real ones.
Where to find cats in Van: The Van Cat Research Centre and its Cat House on the Yüzüncü Yıl University campus, outside Van, on the shore of Lake Van in eastern Anatolia. When: Daily, nine to noon and one to half past six. Spring and early summer for the lake; the kittens are born in spring. Why here: The only place to see the cat every other page on this site has to explain is not what you think it is.
The short version
- Where
- The Van Cat Research Centre and its Cat House on the Yüzüncü Yıl University campus, outside Van, on the shore of Lake Van in eastern Anatolia
- When
- Daily, nine to noon and one to half past six. Spring and early summer for the lake; the kittens are born in spring
- How long
- An hour at the cat house. A day for Van castle and the island church at Akdamar
- What it costs
- A small entry fee that goes on cat food. The flights and the distance are the real cost
- Why here
- The only place to see the cat every other page on this site has to explain is not what you think it is
What to bring
- A little for the doorThe cat house charges a small fee that buys food. A thousand people a week pay it, forty percent of them from abroad.
- The lunch hourThe centre shuts from noon to one. Arrive at nine or at one.
- A whole day for the lakeVan castle and the tenth-century church on Akdamar island are why the trip is worth it beyond the cats.
- A camera, not a handThe cats are behind glass and in enclosures. The good ones come to the front. You do not go to the back.
Why there are cats everywhere
Every white cat with odd eyes in Istanbul gets called a Van cat. The real ones are a thousand kilometres east, and there are not many.
The Van cat is a landrace, a local type rather than a bred one, from the country around Lake Van in eastern Anatolia: chalk white, long-bodied, with a soft coat that is thicker in winter, and eyes that are blue, amber, or, in the famous ones, one of each. They are said to like water, and the lake is the reason. They are not the Turkish Van of the cat fancy, which was formalised in Britain from a few cats in the 1950s and is a different animal with a different coat.
By the late twentieth century there were very few of the real thing left. The university at Van set up a research centre to keep the type going: a breeding programme, a registry, and a Cat House on the campus where the cats live in enclosures and visitors can see them. It is a working scientific facility that happens to be the only place on earth to see a room full of Van cats, and it gets more than a thousand visitors a week.
That is why the page exists. Half the guides on this site have to say, at some point, that the white cat with odd eyes on the step in Cihangir or Kadıköy is not a Van cat, because it is not; it is a moggy with a common gene. This is the page for the people who want to see the real thing, and it is a long way away, on a lake, with a castle and a thousand-year-old church for company.
The walk
The cat house on the campus, then the castle rock above the old town, then, on a second day, the boat to Akdamar. A city that people fly across the country for, mostly for the cats.
- From IstanbulFly to Van Ferit Melen airport130 minTwo hours or so, several a day. The road is a very long way.
- From Van airportTaxi or bus to the university campus20 minAsk for the Kedi Evi, the cat house. Every driver in Van knows it.
- From Van townMinibus or taxi to the campus20 minThe campus is out on the Edremit road. The castle is the other side of town.
The Van Cat House
On the university campus outside town, the Cat House of the research centre: enclosures, viewing rooms, and dozens of white cats. A small fee at the door. The kittens are out in spring.
The cat house. Dozens of them, behind glass, and a thousand visitors a week.Francesco Bini, CC BY-SA 4.0 The research centre
Beside the cat house, the veterinary faculty’s research centre that runs the programme. Not a visitor site as such, but the people who know the cats best are here, and the registry is theirs.
The faculty’s cats. A landrace kept going on purpose.Francesco Bini, CC BY-SA 4.0 Van Kalesi
The castle rock on the edge of town, Urartian, three thousand years old, with cuneiform on the cliff and the ruins of the old city below it. Street cats in the old town at its foot, some of them white, none of them official.
A Van cat, near the castle. Some of the town’s cats are the real thing; ask at the centre.Yusuf Bayezit, CC BY-SA 4.0 Akdamar
A second day: the road west along the lake and the boat to the island with the tenth-century Armenian church of the Holy Cross carved all over with animals. Cats at the landing, fed by the boatmen.
A kitten, in spring, when the cat house has them.No machine-readable author provided. Bertilvidet~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
The Van cat: white, long, soft-coated, with blue, amber or odd eyes, from the lake country of eastern Anatolia. Dozens at the cat house, kept as a breeding population, plus the town’s own street cats, some of which carry the type and most of which do not.
Odd-eyed
One blue eye, one amber, chalk white.
The famous ones. Not all Van cats have them; the ones that do are the postcard.
Blue-eyed
Both eyes blue, white coat.
The same type. Some are deaf, as white blue-eyed cats often are.
Amber-eyed
Both eyes amber, coat the same white.
Equally a Van cat. The eyes are not the point; the type is.
Everybody says That white cat with odd eyes in Istanbul is a Van cat.
Actually Almost certainly not. The look is common in ordinary mixed cats anywhere, and the Van cat is a specific landrace from a lake a thousand kilometres east that a university had to set up a programme to keep alive. This page is where the real ones are. The one on the step in Cihangir is a moggy with good eyes.
How not to be the annoying one
- The cat house is a scientific facility. Follow the staff, stay in the visitor rooms, and do not tap the glass.
- Pay the fee. It is small and it is food.
- The kittens are not for sale to visitors. Do not ask; people do, weekly.
- In town, the street cats are Istanbul rules: let them come, dry food, no milk.
- The centre closes for lunch. Do not stand at the door at half past twelve.
