Southeast Turkey - Day 1

Mount Nemrut National Park

For more photos, see http://www.anatolianphotos.shutterfly.com/

For much of the month of May, Larry and I have been working feverishly trying to edit his book manuscript about the history of the death penalty in Connecticut. With a June 15 deadline, imposed only a few weeks ago, we spent as many of our waking hours as possible working to answer hundreds of questions posed by the editor. Alas, the task became impossible to complete by the deadline, despite our best efforts. For one thing, only Larry’s notes, stored in boxes in Hampton, could answer dozens of the questions. But more importantly (to us), we had previously booked, and paid for, two week long tours of Eastern Turkey to end our sojourn on an exciting note before returning to the U.S. on June 15. Fortunately, the publisher extended our deadline, at Larry’s request, to July 15. SO, off we went, from May 22 to May 28 on the first of our long trips to the cradle of civilization—Southeast Turkey.

I will be posting separate entries for each of the days on our trip. This means that, if you are checking my blog next week or after, you will see the entries in reverse order, beginning with Day 6. Sorry! (Of course, that means you won’t see this note until too late).

On May 22 we joined 21 other people and a great tour guide on a Tempo Tur trip to the area of Turkey that had been off limits during our earlier visit to the country in 1994/95. There, and especially in the city of Diyarbakir, the Kurdish insurgency made travel to the area extremely dangerous. Today, it is safe and is being discovered particularly by Turkish tourists also eager to see a part of their country formerly inaccessible to them as well.

Located between the Tigris and Euphrates (sound familiar to all of you who vaguely remember your Western Civ. classes?), the countryside we visited was astonishing in the richness and complexity of its history. The earliest known settlements are here, dating back to 7000 BCE. Evidence is everywhere of dozens, possibly more, civilizations. For example, the road we travelled was often flanked by "huyuk," or "tel," huge flat hills that were sites of multiple layers of earlier settlements, some of which are still awaiting excavation!

Large sections of the area are now inundated with water dammed up from the two big rivers by a series of dams constructed over the past several years. The GAP project, building and maintaining these dams, has nearly completed the construction of all 22 projected dams, bringing (on the plus side) irrigation to this extremely dry region, and hydroelectric power to remote towns and villages. On the negative side, the waters are also the cause of an increase in malaria, the displacement of entire village populations, and the drowning of historically significant sites. I have also been told that Iraq and Syria, downriver, are none too happy about the decrease in the water that reaches their countries.

Our six day trip covered 2,374 kilometers by bus. That’s 1475 miles on a bus. Luckily for us, Turkish buses are very comfortable, clean and efficient. And our bus drivers were amazing.
After the long overnight, nearly sleepless trip from Ankara to Kahta, we checked into the Zeus hotel, which was the only one of five hotels where we truly enjoyed the food. All the others served some variation of meat kebap. Larry certainly got mighty tired of eggplant and cuke and tomato salad, with little other variety. I at least was able to eat some chicken and terrific fish. Otherwise, I too was not impressed with the food, so this will be the last mention of it. (But we will always be grateful for the Zeus hotel food).

This first day’s cultural visit was to the Mount Nemrut National Park, which included several sites from the time of the Commagene kingdom, a brief civilization dating from 162 BCE to about 72 AD.

Karakus Tumulus – Our first stop, after resting at the hotel (and a nice solo swim in the hotel pool for me) was the Karakus Tumulus, a large pile of rocks the size of a fist which was typical of other tumuli in the area. The graves of the women of the royal family of the Commagene kingdom are believed to lie under these rocks. Karakus means "black bird" and may refer to the eagle on top of one of the remaining columns surrounding the tumulus. Some consider this mound to be a smaller version of the one atop Nemrut Dag (below), where the king Antiochus himself is supposedly buried.

Cendere Bridge – In 210 AD, four Commagene cities built this single arch bridge over a tributary of the Euphrates River to honor the Roman emperor, Septemus Severus, his wife and his two sons. Four Corinthian columns formerly flanked the ends of the bridge; only three now remain. One of Severus’s sons, Caracalla, assuming the throne on the death of his father, murdered his brother, Geta, and removed the column representing his brother, along with any references to the latter throughout the Roman Empire. This bridge is the oldest remaining bridge in Turkey and one of the oldest in the world. At 1,800 years old, it is still in use, mostly by tourists, and is in excellent condition.

Arsemeia (today: Eskikale, or "Old Castle") – This city on top of a tall promontory was the ancient capital of the Commagene kingdom, and was founded by Mithridates I around 80 BC. The more recent capital, Yenikale ("New Castle") is now buried under the waters of the GAP dams. Climbing up a somewhat scary path along the side of the hill, we passed a stele depicting Mithras, the god of the sun (called Apollo in the West), and the god of a secret cult in ancient times. Later, we passed two tunnels carved into the stone, reputedly sites of secret rites of the cult. The openings of the tunnels are blocked; they extend about 500 feet down into the mountain, and the steep carved stairways are apparently very dangerous to descend. At the mouth of one of the caves is a relief of Antiochus I shaking hands with Hercules; above the opening is a long carved account in Greek of the founding of the city. Higher up the hill are the remains of the city itself; we did not, though, go any higher. The view was unbelievable!

Nemrut Dag (Mount Nemrut) - One of the key highlights of this trip ended this first day of sight seeing. After a harrowing ride on three minibuses, ours driven by a seeming daredevil, up mountain roads with, as usual, no guardrails, we arrived at the top of the 7,000 foot high Mount Nemrut (sometimes referred to as Nemrud), a UNESCO World Heritage site.

From the parking lot, we climbed the remaining 500 feet or so to the first of two terraces cut from stone at the top of the mountain. The very tip of the summit, between the two terraces is a 150 foot pyramid constructed of loose stone, reputedly containing the tombs of Antiochus 1, the Commagene ruler who oversaw the creation of this colossal site during his reign around the first century BCE.

Nobody knows for sure whether there is a tomb or any remains within the summit’s tumulus because it cannot be excavated (or looted) without the entire structure of loose stone collapsing atop any intruders. Clever. Interestingly, similar grandiose tombs and/or monuments in Egypt were engineered from more permanent materials; i.e., huge stone blocks. But their very strength enabled robbers to penetrate the pyramids and carry off treasures, unlike the tumulus atop Nemrut Dag, which remains intact.

From a distance, one can see the summit’s tumulus, which creates the illusion of a very pointy summit. The terraces on either side of the tumulus, though, are not visible from below the mountain, or from any distance for that matter. Only by climbing the mountain, or, in our case, the very top to the summit, can one see why Nemrut Dag is such an amazing site, which has recently become one of the symbols of Turkey and a popular tourist destination. So, donning our warm clothes (I had five layers, including a down vest and still felt cold), we braved the strong winds and cold and climbed to the top, passing up the opportunity to take a "taxi" (i.e., a donkey) up the steepest bit.

We first reached the Western terrace, where Antiochus, son of Mithridates, had constructed a temple, of which only the base remains. Facing due West, colossal statues of himself and various gods look out over the spectacular landscape below. Earthquakes, unfortunately, collapsed the statues such that all the heads fell to the ground. Recent renovations, however, stood the heads upright, at the base of their respective bodies. There are plans to one day hoist the heads back onto the bodies, but, frankly, I think the current configuration is fine as it is. The western terrace’s statues pay tribute to the Mesopotamian ancestry of Antiochus; the eastern terrace to his Persian ancestry.

Moving around the tumulus to the eastern terrace, we see many of the same type of statues, including Antiochus again, this time wearing a Persian style head covering. Also on view are reliefs depicting Antiochus shaking hands with several historical or mythical figures; e.g., Hercules, Zeus, and Apollo. The latter, Apollo, was also named Mithras by the Persians and was the center of a cult religion that supposedly practiced secret rites in caves throughout the region (see above).

By the time we were ready to depart, the sun was very low. We were planning to stay atop the mountain until sunset, but left early because clouds were beginning to form and some people had not worn enough warm clothing. As we descended the summit, I mentioned to Larry that the eleven hour bus trip was worth it just to see this site alone. Amazing!

Because there is so much more to describe about Nemrut Dag, including the specific gods and the rich history of the area, I will let the internet do so. Besides, it is all too confusing to make sense of the changes in civilizations, cultures, rulers, religions and so on, so I’ve given up trying. Here is a helpful web site: http://www.adiyamanli.org/mt_nemrut.htm