Adilcevaz Kef Castle in the light of new archaeological research and geophysical investigations

Among the Urartian fortresses, Kef Castle is definitely one of the castles which has many aspects of which is still not understood. Discussions on the general architectural structure, the nature of the stone reliefs, the meanings of the religious motifs used in architectural elements and the function of the castle are still ongoing. In this thesis, the aim is to understand the construction of the Kef Castle, its function, purpose of construction, architectural structure, surroundings and its geological structure. In this context, necessary resources were searched from the first written documents and systematic surface surveys, measurement and mapping studies and geophysical studies were carried out. All data obtained from the literature survey, field survey and geophysical survey were evaluated with the related sources and transferred in sections. As a result of these studies, castle's location, function, purpose of construction and the other questions were tried to be answered with the light of the literature. Field surface survey's data and previous excavation results were evaluated within the scope of the work and archaeological data were used to determine whether the castle was used out of the Urartian period.