Nemrut: Kings and Gods of Stone

Finally, the time had come to make a long-time dream come true … to visit the summit of the 7,000-foot high Mount Nemrut. To do so, we began by driving a steep, winding road … paved all the way up.

First up …. the visitor center … to use the facilities, check out the gift shop, and pay the admission — ₺30pp … covered by the MüzeKart. From there, we then continued a short distance further up the mountain to park about .3 miles from the top.

In the parking lot, we bundled up in the layers we’d been warned to bring with us and began our trek. Turns out that we were lucky with the weather … comfortable temps with full sunshine to further warm us up and not the slightest hint of a breeze. We could have easily done without the extra layers, scarves, hats, and gloves … which we shed along way and ended up carrying instead of wearing.

The path to the summit consists of a series of steps … quite steep. This path takes visitors up to the two pantheons and the tumulus of Antiochus I. The latter is what gives Mount Nemrut its iconic cone-shaped tip. We had plenty of time for the trek and took our time, so it wasn’t too strenuous. None of us remembered to time the climb, but from the photos I took, I am estimating we got from the parking lot to the top in about 30 minutes.

Nemrut, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is sometimes referred to as the place where kings and gods turned into stone. This is due to the 26-30 foot tall rock statues … the heads of which were severed from the bodies at some time in the distant past.

According to records from the time, Antiochus I, who was a king of the Commagene Kingdom (163 BC-72 AD), wanted to be buried somewhere quiet and peaceful … amongst the gods worshipped at the time.

Thus, when he died in 34 BC, he was buried in a sanctuary/tomb flanked to the east and west by pantheons of seated statues of the gods … atop windy Mount Nemrut … overlooking the Euphrates. His burial site was then covered with a giant pile of gravel. Indeed, it wasn’t until 1881 that German engineers figured out where his tomb was located. To this date, archaeologists have been unable to determine how to get to the tomb without damaging the gravel tumulus that gives way to a landslide with each attempt

At the summit are two terraces. One facing east — thus lit up by the sun at sunrise; and one facing west — thus lit up by the sun at sunset. Another thing that separates the two sides — the heads of the seated gods are lined up in front of each statue on the east side, but lie helter skelter on the west side.

When I envisioned visiting Nemrut, it was the western terrace that captured my imagination. I wanted to see what was left of the weather-and-time-beaten statues of Antiochus, lions, eagles, and various Greek and Persian gods — such as Heracles-Artagnes-Ares, Zeus-Oromasdes, and Apollo-Mithras-Helios-Hermes — in what I felt was a more natural setting.

Because the path we took up the mountain came to a “T” at the top, we detoured to the eastern terrace first to take photos. I’ll admit that I found this side less impressive because it was in the shade and the the scene that our eyes beheld seemed gloomy, cold, and lackluster. Especially after we walked around to the west terrace … and saw the statues glowing gold, bright, and warm in the late afternoon sunlight.

I’d been worried that I would not get any people-less photos of the statues and had resigned myself to that. The good news … visitors are no longer allowed to wander amongst the heads, so we were able to get people-free photos after all. There wasn’t much we could do, however, about the shadows cast on the scene by visitors and statues alike.

We wandered around for a bit and then found a perch to sit and enjoy what we had come to see. Ali had brought a bottle of wine, which we sipped from paper cups as he continued to tell us about Antiochus and the Commagene Kingdom.

Initially, we had planned to stay for sunset, but after a while we all agreed that we’d seen what we came to see and there was no reason to dally to watch the sunset from the summit. So, we began the slow trek down. This was a smart decision as we did we not have to join a long line of people streaming down the mountain once the sun had gone behind the Taurus Mountains. As well, we could actually see where we were stepping … much safer. Nor did we have to convoy down to Kâhta with the 30-40 other vehicles that were in the parking lot when we made our way back to our van. In any event, we had the same view of the sunset from the steps that the people who stayed at the top did, so we didn’t really miss anything.

Back in Kâhta, we switched vehicles again, and continued our drive another 30 minutes or so to our hotel in Adıyaman Merkez.Read more