Nemrut Dağı

"UNESCO World Heritage Listed as Nemrut Dad World Heritage site in 1987, the first-century ace. mausoleum of Antiochus I of Commagene on Nemrut Dad mountain, in southeastern Anatolia, is one of the most ambitious constructions of the Hellenistic period Commagene, a kingdom to the north of Syria and the Fuphrates that was founded after the breakup of Alexander the Great's empire had links with both Persia and Macedonia thanks to its geographical position and the lineage of its rulers (Antiochus counted Darius the Great and Seleucus I Nicator among his ancestors). It is this mix that makes the site so interesting. Antiochus had workmen bulld a tumulus 160 feet 150 m) high on top of the mountain, between temple compounds on terraces of rock it is not clear whether this tumulus houses his remains or not. On the eastern terrace, five colossal seated statues some 30 feet 19 mi high have been identified as of Greek and Persian deities Apollo Mithras, Tyche (the Commagene fertility goddess), Zeus-Oromasdes, Antiochus himself and Hercules-Artagnes. The statues on the western terrace depict the same Greek and Persian deities and there are also bas-reliefs. The heads of the statues from both terraces have fallen to the ground--the area is prone to earthquakes but even they are more than 6 feet (2 m) hich. On the western terrace, the background of a stone slab depicting a lion shows an arraricement of nineteen stars and the planets Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars that would suggest a date of July 7 62 AcE. which might be when construction began Nobody outside the area knew anything about the site until 1881. when an Ottoman survey team came across this remote mountaintop and its statues, Archeological work proper did not begin until 1953. when a German-American "