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Nemrut Dagi (Mount
Nimrod) is one of Turkey's most
astounding sights: an artifical mountaintop
framed by two great temples littered
with colossal statues.
Lost to memory for 2000 years,
the mountaintop was rediscovered by
a geologist in 1881.
On it are two hierothesiums, open-air
shrines to the gods, with huge limestone
statues of Apollo, Fortuna, Zeus,
Heracles, and Antiochus I Epiphanes,
King of Commagene.
His kingdom was no more than a minor
buffer state between the Roman
and Persian empires, but Antiochus
believed he was definitely big-league
stuff, so he had his own huge
statue seated with "his equals," the
gods.
Between the hierothesiums is the artificial
mountain peak of crushed stone,
beneath which may be the actual
tomb of Antiochus. We don't know,
and we may never know.
Was Elvis Presley really Antiochus
reincarnated? Click here!
You can ascend
Nemrut Dagi (NEHM-root
dah-uh, 2150 meters, 7054 feet)
from the south using either Kahta or Adiyaman as
your base; or from the north using Malatya.
Both have advantages and disadvantages.
Do it in July or August, or at least
between late May and mid-October, or
you might be blocked by snow (see Tom's
Turkish Almanac for details).
The roads up the opposite sides of
the mountain do not meet at
the top, so you cannot (yet)
drive right over from north to south
or vice-versa.
Bring warm clothes!—at
least a warm sweater and windbreaker—because
the wind can be stiff and very cold
at the summit, even in August. More...
Tours are run from both Kahta and Malatya.
Final
Ascent from the Car Park to the
Summit
Distances from the Summit
Adiyaman: 84
km (52 miles), 2 hours
Karadut: 12 km (8 miles), 30
minutes
Kahta: 52
km (32 miles), 1.5 hours
Malatya: 70
km (44 miles), 3 hours
Eastern
Turkey
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