Nemrut Dağ
Nemrut Dağ, mountaintop in the Taurus Mountains near Adıyaman, Turkey, that is the site of the enormous 1st-century-BCE mausoleum of Antiochus I of Commagene. The site, featuring the heads of the huge statues that originally surrounded the tumulus at the peak, was inscribed as the Nemrut Dağ World Heritage site in 1987.
Commagene, a small kingdom to the north of Syria and the Euphrates River that broke away from the Seleucid empire about 162 BCE, had links with both Persia and Macedonia thanks to its geographical position and the lineage of its rulers (Antiochus claimed descent from Darius the Great of Persia as well as Seleucus I Nicator). This mix informs the culture and religion of Commagene and is a major factor making the site so interesting.
Antiochus had workers build a tumulus some 165 feet (50 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 (9 m) high have been identified as Apollo-Mithra, Tyche (the Commagene fertility goddess), Zeus-Oromasdes, Antiochus himself, and Heracles-Artagnes-Ares. There are also statues of a lion and the head of an eagle. 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, but even they are more than 6 feet (2 m) high. On the western terrace, the background of a stone slab depicting a lion shows an arrangement of 19 stars and the planets Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars that would suggest a date of July 7, 62 BCE, which might be when construction began.
Though residents of the area were aware of the site, the outside world learned of it when a German engineer surveying Ottoman Empire transit routes was shown the site in 1881. Archaeological work proper did not begin until 1953, when a German-American team embarked on a scientific investigation. Efforts to reconstruct the site were undertaken in 2001 but soon abandoned; another project that began in 2006 is ongoing.