Factbox: Turkey's Van Province

(Reuters) - Up to 1,000 people were killed in an earthquake in southeast Turkey's Van Province Sunday.

Here are some facts on Van:

THE PROVINCE:

* Van is in eastern Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. The province has a population of just over a million.

* It is a stock-raising area, specialising in horses. Grains, fruits, and vegetables are grown.

* It has a large Kurdish population. Many Armenian residents were deported and massacred during World War One.

* A major earthquake struck Van province in November 1976, killing 5,291. About 50,000 people were made homeless.

THE CITY:

* The city of Van is on the eastern shore of Lake Van, at an altitude of 5,750 feet.

* It lies in an oasis at the foot of a hill crowned by an ancient ruined citadel. A ruin near the bottom of the spur bears cuneiform inscriptions dating from the 8th and 7th centuries BC, when Van was the center of the Urartu Kingdom.

* It prospered under the Armenian Bagratid dynasty in the 8th century. It was later annexed to the Ottoman Empire in 1543. Russian forces occupied the city from 1915 to 1917 during World War One.

Sources: Reuters/www.britannica.com/Turkish Statistics Institute/www.allaboutturkey.com

(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)