Mount Nemrut Armenia. Turkish "Olympus" - stone heads of the gods Nemrut Dag. Why Nemrut Dag

It's been a while since we climbed the mountains and admired natural wonders. So let's now correct the situation and go to a place full of secrets - Mount Nemrut Dag in Turkey and look at the mysterious stone heads.


Where are the stone heads on Mount Nemrut Dag?

Nemrut-Dag is a southeastern mountain in Turkey, located near the city of Adiyaman. The height of this mountain is 2150 meters above sea level.

In order to easily get to Mount Nemrut-Dag from Adiyaman, you need to take direct transport to Kyakhta and calmly wait for the “final stop”. A little more and you will be at the foot of one of the most mysterious mountains in the world, a little more and you will see mysterious stone heads.


It is worth noting that Mount Nemrut-Dag has a huge history of tens, hundreds and thousands of years behind it. And further! There is something unusual and secret on it - these are stone heads.


Who created the stone heads on Nemrut Dag and the tomb of King Antiochus I

The amazing “mausoleum” on Nemrut Dag is one of the most popular attractions in Turkey, as well as. Indeed, this place, like no other, is imbued with the history and culture of antiquity.


To convince ourselves, let's start with the history of the creation of the statues on Nemrut Dag.

In the distant 2nd century BC, Nemrut belonged to the dwarf state of Commagen. The state itself was small, but the rulers were very proud and powerful individuals. Each of them tried to “stand out”, to show their power over others. King Mithridates I arranged here Olympic Games, thereby “attracting and enticing” those around him. It would seem that what could be better and larger?


But King Antiochus I simply surprised everyone with his idea. He created his own, new religion! And he gave himself the “title” of God.

Nemrut at that time became religious center. And it was here that it was planned to build something like a ritual complex. But the construction was not completed, since after the death of Antiochus I the work stopped.

At the top of the mountain there is a huge burial ground with a sanctuary - this is the tomb of King Antiochus 1.


The king wished to deify himself and ordered a will to be written on the walls of the temple with a request to “celebrate” his birthday from year to year. He said that, no matter what, literally every subject was obliged to taste the treats and sacrifice an animal. “Let there be a holiday!” - the will ends with these words.


The mystery of the stone heads on Mount Nemrut-Dag

The peak of Nemrut Dag consists of three terraces - western, eastern and northern. It is there that these mysterious statues of gods are located - stone heads.


On this moment the statues are already “dismembered”, so to speak. It’s just that after a strong earthquake, the stone heads of the statues “fell off their shoulders” and now stand next to “their bodies”!


As Antiochus I said: “This place is the home of the Gods! This is where their heavenly thrones are."


Now you know about the history of the stone heads on Nemrut Dag in Turkey. Find out more and more interesting things and travel the world with us.


Where are the stone heads on Mount Nemrut-Dag located on the map


Türkiye is a country with great history and many attractions. In addition to beaches and hotels, Türkiye is famous for historical places. One of the places worth visiting is the city of Adiyaman. In the vicinity of the Turkish city there is Mount Nemrut Dag, literally Nemrut Mountain. The mountain was named after the great-grandson of Noah. The height of the mountain is 2150 meters, the mountain is located in the southeast of the country. There are buses from the city of Adiyaman to Nemrut Dag, so getting to your destination is not difficult.

Mysterious and mystical place. Mount Nemrut is dotted with large stone heads.

The history of the appearance of statues on the mountain

In the second century BC, the king of the Armenian dynasty Antiochus I ordered the construction of a temple on the top of Mount Nemrut. The state of Commagene, whose ruler was the king, was very small. Trying to rise above the others and show his greatness, Antiochus I called himself God. In order to perpetuate his personality, he gave instructions to carve words glorifying the name of Antiochus on the walls of the temple.

The best sculptors and architects began construction of the temple. A two kilometer long road was built. But the temple was not destined to be completed. After the death of the ruler, construction was stopped. The people did not favor Antiochus I and refused to fulfill the king's wishes. On the site of the temple on Mount Nemrut, the subjects erected a tomb in which the king was buried.

The tomb is surrounded by statues eight meters high, and stone heads can be seen on all sides. There are terraces on three sides of the tomb. From the highest terrace there is a view of Hercules, Apollo, Antiochus I. Stone heads of lions and eagles rise on either side of them. It is also impossible to pass by the bas-reliefs depicting the ancestors of the king. After thousands of years, the statues lost their original appearance. The stone heads are separate and lie next to their bodies. Weather, earthquakes partially destroyed buildings.

The width of the tomb is 150 meters, and the height reaches 50 meters. The shape of the tomb is a conical mound. The tomb was built using stones. Tomb stones small sizes, poured on the site where the temple was to be built. The tomb is located at the very top of the mountain. They began to explore the mountain in the twentieth century, but to this day the entrance to the tomb has not been found. The attraction today is included in the UNESCO list and is a national park. Many tourists visit the mysterious mountain.

Mount Nemrut. How to get there

First you need to get to the city of Adiyaman using the following transport:

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Airplane (from Istanbul to Adiyaman or Malatya);

Bus (from any city in Turkey to your destination);

In Adiyaman you need to take a minibus that will take you to Kyakhta. Minibuses run every half hour. You can stop in Adiyaman, as well as in Kyakhta.

Finding a suitable hotel or guesthouse is not difficult. Kyakhta is located 24 kilometers from Mount Nemrut. On site it is possible to purchase an excursion, which will include the road to the mountain. Arrival at the mountain is planned for dawn. Getting to Nemrut Dag on your own will not be easy.

When planning to visit Turkey, be sure to include a visit to Mount Nemrut in your program. No tourist will remain indifferent after watching the sunrise surrounded by historical sights.

Friends, today you will read and see a place that simply captivated us at first sight. I noticed one strange thing: if a place has any strong energy, that is, essentially a place of power, then we get there very easily, and sometimes literally miraculously. Inaccessibility to the mountain with large stone heads of gods called Nemrut Dag and our journey there became yet another proof of this. Believe me, you won’t regret it either when you learn more about this place.

“Wonderful” hitchhiking to Nemrut Dag.

And we continue to walk along the main street of Adiyaman, and along the way we try our luck to catch a car that will take us at least to the edge of the city. Yes, Turkey is so harsh that you can hitchhike even around the city; after 20 minutes we were sitting in a small truck that was taking us on our way out.

For some reason, all the Turks who give us a lift think that we are in no hurry. Of course, we are in no hurry, but this does not mean that we will sit in the car and wait for the driver to sleep, because he is tired after long hours of work, and then take us to Nemrut. This is exactly what the owner of the truck decided when we left the city. Having kindly sent him…to sleep, we went further along the highway.

Traffic towards Nemrut Dag was, to put it mildly, sparse, so we were very happy when another truck decided to pick us up, although it was already completely filled with Kurdish children and women. It seems that they were not justified, and the Kurds are no worse than the Turks in terms of their desire to help. Free place It was only found in the back, from where two boys who couldn’t fit into the cab looked at us timidly, and it smelled like cow waste. In such a romantic atmosphere, we covered 40 km while standing, while there were still about 20 km to the goal.

I did not expect that the very first wave of my hand would stop in front of us a car completely stuffed with bags, some of which even rested on the back of the driver’s head. There was only one seat available in the front, and it was there, out of desperation, that Mila and I crowded together with our backpacks. To be honest, I don’t know how we were able to fit there, thank God, it didn’t take long to drive, otherwise I would have remained bent in four :).

We landed right at the turn up the mountain; there was another 13 km ahead and a completely deserted road. I didn’t even know if there were any villages ahead so that local transport could pick us up. There was absolutely no point in walking, especially considering that the heads are located on a mountain 2100 meters high, which means that at night it is absolutely not hot there and I didn’t want to spend the night there. Then we sit down by the road and wait.

An hour passed and not a single car. Mila and I were already beginning to doubt that there was anything on wheels here at all, when suddenly a minibus appeared around the bend. We jumped to our feet and waved our arms. The car stopped, the driver immediately understood where we needed to go and, without further ado, put us in the cabin.

We thought that he would take us at least to the nearest village, but in the end we stopped right at the ticket office before driving up the mountain. And, apparently, this was not the final stop yet, so we just paid 9 liras (180 rubles) per person. Who knew that the driver would actually be one of the builders who are now beautifying Nemrut Dag for tourists?! That's right, we were taken straight to the mountain, which personally reminded me of a real pyramid. I will not say that this is it, but when you see the remains of the gods, I think you will doubt it too.

Collapsed sculptures of the gods of the Turkish “Olympus”.

We left our backpacks with the Kurdish workers to make it easier to explore the area. They even told us that they would find a place to stay if needed. Mila, after the pestering Turks and the tales about the Kurds, was not at all eager to agree to this proposal.

Work here was in full swing; they were building a concrete staircase right up to the mountain, carrying materials on donkeys along a side path. The stairs had not yet been completed, so we walked the rest of the way over rocks.

When I saw the first head, everything inside me stopped with admiration. With every step, a whole platform opened up before our eyes, where giant sculptures used to stand. Mila, as always, simply flew up, although downstairs she could barely move her legs due to the heat and the weight behind her back.

From the mountain there was an amazing view of hills and mountains for many kilometers in the distance. They say that the Olympian gods lived in Greece, but at that moment it seemed to me for a moment that this was where Olympus was.

It's probably worth looking into the history of the origin of this place.

The origin story of Nemrut Dag.

Once existed small state called Commagene, and was ruled by King Antiochus from a dynasty of Greco-Persian origin. On his mother's side, the vain king was a descendant of the famous Alexander the Great. And the king’s pride was so strong that in the end he declared himself God, after which he decided, in order not to be unfounded, to recreate his personality in art along with the pantheon of Gods already existing at that time.

Antiochus did not skimp when he built Mount Nemrud sanctuaries for the gods, inviting the best workers and sculptors of the time. Construction began in 62 BC, and three terraces were built, on the topmost of which were placed figures of gods, guarded by statues of eagles and lions.

When the construction was finally completed, by decree of the king, a paved road was laid out to the 2000-meter high mountain. All the people had to climb it and worship at the statues twice a month. Tired travelers were greeted by a huge inscription: “I, Antiochus, built this temple to glorify myself and my gods.”

It is unknown how long this lasted, only after the death of the king, his subjects buried his ashes on the top, erecting a fifty-meter marble pyramid above his tomb.

After this, the sanctuary was forgotten. Only occasionally, due to numerous earthquakes, the collapsing massive figures of gods puzzled lost travelers, until in 1953 a group of American geologists found the stone heads.

But, and that’s not all, on the other side of the pyramidal mountain, on which for some reason a bunch of small stones were poured, I found copies of exactly the same heads and dilapidated sculptures. And right in front of them is a large platform, more reminiscent seat for a helicopter.

Now take a closer look at these two photographs, these are heads from different sides of the mountain of the same “god” (presumably King Antiochus himself)....what is your opinion?

Did you also think that with reverse side Are the sculptures smaller and more “artisanal”? This is exactly what it really is.

My opinion is this: during the heyday of the Nth Empire, dilapidated sculptures left by more ancient civilizations were accidentally discovered. The find amazed the ruler so much that he convened his best sculptors, who tried to repeat the ideality of the lines and proportions of the “gods,” but as you can see, the task turned out to be impossible, but completed.

I even climbed to the very peak of the “pyramid”. Apparently, I’m not the first, as I found the remains of candles and other ritual accessories. By the way, the site here is flat, and if you believe some historical sources, then at the very top of the pyramid there should be a silver cone.

Despite the fact that the place is not very promoted and not completed, there are enough tourists here, mostly independent travelers on personal transport. One of these turned out to be the French, who arrived here in a house on wheels. By the way, I saw it on the lower levels of the mountain, probably the guys decided to spend the night here, lucky guys!

We exchanged a few words with the French in English and found out where they had already been and what else interesting things could be seen. Interested locality called , but we will talk about this in due time.

With 17 Kurds in one car.

I don’t know how much time we spent on the “Olympic” mountain, but when we went down to get our things, the sun was beginning to set. I was also of the opinion that spending the night with a girl in the company of only men is not the best best idea. So we grabbed our things and headed towards the road, hoping for some car with tourists returning home.

The builders' working day was also coming to an end, and a couple of Kurdish guys saw us and asked where we were going. We said that we needed to go out, then they offered to give us a lift, but first it would be nice to have dinner. We were taken to a work trailer, treated to local soup and lemonade, and then seated in the very car in which we arrived. Only now in the cabin, besides us, there were 17 more guys, all Kurds. Unlike the Turks, which we really liked, the Kurds did not stare at Mila at all, but rather, on the contrary, they themselves seated us so that she felt as comfortable as possible in this crowd.

The guys not only took us to the highway, but also agreed with one of the workers who was traveling towards the town of Siverek to pick us up, where part of the route had to be covered by ferry. But even to the ferry it was not he who took us, but a minibus, yes, with ordinary passengers, only we rode for free. True, at the exit, one of the passengers began to demand payment, I never understood people who are trying to extract money from us, while not being the driver of the car we are driving. In general, I sent this comrade away when we found ourselves on the shore.

The ferry was supposed to arrive in an hour, which didn’t make us too happy, since it was time to look for accommodation for the night, and if we wasted time crossing, we’d have to pitch the tent in the dark. Okay, the ferry will wait until tomorrow, let's go look for a parking spot. This vegetable garden is ideal, and the river is nearby, which means you can wash your hair in the morning.

Mount Nemrut - Armenia School of Parapsychology Online! “...Do not give holy things to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces,” - Gospel of Matthew. One of these pearls in the culture of the Armenian people is the pantheon of Armenian pagan gods, located at the top mysterious mountain Nemrut, located in the southwest historical Armenia(today in Turkey), which rises 2150 meters above sea level and is unique historical monument almost thirty years (in 1987) since being included in the list World Heritage UNESCO. They say that there is no such sunrise and sunset as on Nemrut anywhere else. The history of this place, from the point of view of archaeologists, dates back to 62 BC. After the peace treaty with the Roman Republic in 66 BC. e., concluded in Artashat, the Armenian Kamakh (Commagene) became an independent kingdom, and Antiochus I Theos Ervanduni, who became the king of the independent Commagene, was crowned with the Armenian crown, handed to him from the hands of the “king of kings” Tigran II the Great himself. Antiochus I was destined for a great role in the history of Armenia and the Armenian people - to build a cone-shaped tomb and monuments exquisite with their masterpiece structures, among which the main ones are the statues of Armenian gods on the top of Mount Nemrut - these are huge seven-meter statues sitting on a throne. Around the cone-shaped tomb itself there were giant statues of varying heights, reaching 10 meters! The central part of the tomb is a massive mound of small stones, the height of which is almost fifty meters, and the radius is about 150 meters. Among the monuments to the Armenian gods, there are 5 busts in a sitting position. In the very center there is a statue of the supreme god, the creator of heaven and earth, Aramazd, which is 9 meters high. To the right of Aramazd there is a statue of the goddess Astghik - in Armenian mythology the goddess (ditsui) of love and beauty, beloved of the god of thunder and lightning Vahagn. According to legend, after the love encounters of Astghik and Vahagn, it rained. On the other side of Aramazd is the shrine of the god of light and justice Mihra (Միհր - Mithra, Mher, Mher - the son of Aramazd, brother Anahit, depicted as a young man fighting a bull), who, according to legend, was born from a rock naked, but with covered with a head, which in the images resembles Armenian veils, on his right hand he holds a dagger, and on his other hand he holds a torch, with which he illuminates this world for the first time. He destroys darkness and spreads light to the earth. To the right of the trinity of main gods is the author and creator of these shrines - King Antiochus I. On the other side there is a statue of the god of war Vahagn Artagnes - the ancient Armenian dragon-slayer god. The shrines of Mount Nemrut are a monument of Armenian pre-Christian culture. Centuries have passed, and much has changed in the territory where these miraculous monuments of Armenian culture are exalted. According to the definition of some historians......... “Armenian mythology or Ditsabanutsyun (Հայ դիցաբանություն) - refers to the system of the most ancient ideas of the ancestors of modern Indo-European peoples, based on a complex of proto-Indo-European beliefs, religious views and cults of the ancient Armenians, which are still preserved in modern Armenian culture in the form traditions passed on from generation to generation and the primordial foundations of its identity. The initial cult of worship of the proto-Armenians was some incomprehensible High power, The mind called Ar. The physically visible embodiment of Ara was considered the Sun (Arev), which was worshiped by the ancient Armenians, who called themselves Arevordi (children of the Sun). Since ancient times, Solar religious symbolism has occupied a special place in Armenian religiosity, existing outside of time and outside the history of its development.” Let's remember Arevakhach. “Information for thought”: 1. According to Khorenatsi, Hayk orders “Bel’s corpse... to be buried on a hill,” and according to the legend recorded by G. Svandztyants, the Armenian king “with the hand of God struck Bel, removed the top of Nemrut, dug a hole in this place, made a tonir , hung Bel inside and burned him.” If we remember the circularity of the tonir, the semantic relationship between the name Bel and the Armenian words blur and bolor, which is based on the ancient and productive root bhel, becomes clear. From the word bolor comes bolorel - to twist, curl, surround, complete a circle in the sense of finishing. These words are closely associated with reptiles, primarily snakes. 2. Nemrut is a legendary person with whom many legends and traditions are associated. According to the Armenian ancient legend, he is a foreign king who invaded Armenia. To exalt himself, he entered into a competition with God: he ordered the construction of a wonderful palace on the top of the mountain and, climbing onto its roof, he fired a bow into the sky, which angered God. Immediately Nemrut, together with his palace, fell into an opening abyss, and a lake formed in the place of the palace. I wonder what's in the crater extinct volcano Nemrut is a lake. According to the testimony of, for example, G. Srvandztyants, “at the top of Nemrut there is still a tonir with water, this water, going down under the mountain, forms the source of the Megraget River... The source of Megraget is a round pool in the Mush valley in the vicinity of the city of Odz (in Armenian “

panoramas are clickable

Actually, we went on a trip to Eastern Turkey precisely for this place. A year earlier, while traveling around Georgia, we were at the observatory in Abastumani and our guide-astronomer Givi Kimeridze briefly showed a picture giant statues on the mountain against the backdrop of the starry sky. Said: This is in Turkey, a nice place. The old photo stuck in my head so much that when I arrived, I found Mount Nemrut on Google and now we were going to visit it.

You can get to Nerut from Malatya or Adiyaman by taking a dolmush ticket to Kahta. There we decided to spend the night in a hotel, the name of which, luckily for them, I don’t remember. They invited you to their place as if it were the best and most cheap hotel in the city, however, in fact it turned out to be a rather creepy and dirty bedbug infestation, while 200 meters away there was a cozy and cheap teachers house. By the way, teachers' houses are kind of like hotels for government employees. Ordinary tourists can also stay there. A little more expensive, but still very cheap. At the same time, the level of the hotel is quite 3 stars. But we only met them in eastern Turkey. If anyone knows more, please tell me. In general, we doubted for a long time whether to stay in our terrible hotel, then we spat, threw our things, went out, saw the hotel better and returned exactly 10 minutes later with the goal of checking out. It seems, of course, that we are not very consistent, but the administrator at the reception threw us a formal tantrum, demanding to pay for a day for two, because... He has losses because of us. Yeah, losses. We arrived at 10 pm and canceled 10 minutes after checking in, without even registering. In general, there was a terrible and lengthy scene, as a result of which we moved out, the administrator yelled that we would not be accepted in any hotel in the city, we went to the teachers house, but they did not let us in, saying that the hotel owner, it turns out, has connections , he forbids taking his clients and they will have trouble with the measure, because. The administrator just called. As a result, two nice Turkish teachers saved us by directing us to a third hotel that was not involved in the quarrel.

The next morning we went to the mountain. Nemrut-Dag (Nemrut, Nemrud, Turkish. Nemrut Dağ or Nemrut Dağı, Greek. Όρος Νεμρούτ, Armenian. Նեմրութ լեռ, Pers. کوه نمرود‎, Kurdish Çiyay. ê Nemrûd) is a mountain in the southeast of Turkey in the Taurus Mountains in the Adıyaman silt . Altitude 2150 meters above sea level. In 62 BC. e., King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene from the Armenian Yervandid dynasty built a tomb - a sanctuary surrounded by huge statues 8 - 9 meters high - on the top of Mount Nemrut. The center of the tomb is a mound of small stones, on top of a mountain, 49.8 meters high and 150 meters wide at the base. Under the mound is the tomb of Antiochus I of Commagene (69-38 BC). The edges of the rocky peak on which the tomb is located are turned into large terraces on three sides. Two of them are decorated with five majestic seated statues 8 meters high: in the middle is the figure of Zeus, on the sides the personified “Commagene” and King Antiochus, on the edges are Apollo and Hercules.

King Antiochus was a perky guy with Armenian roots and delusions of grandeur. He claimed that his mother came from the family of Alexander the Great, and his father was a descendant of the Persian king Darius. He himself wanted to become famous no less than the Macedonian and did not come up with anything better than to create his own religion with himself at the head. In this religion, he tried to combine the traditions of the gods of the West (Greek) and the East (Zoroastrianism) and, like the kings of antiquity, ordered himself to be deified. He ordered his will to be engraved on the wall of the temple, which was supposed to immortalize his name: “My birthday should be celebrated every year and every month. On these days, let the chief priest burn incense in honor of the gods and me, and put the most exquisite dishes and wines on the festive tables, and let him drive cattle for sacrifice. My subjects gathered here must taste everything, and let there be a holiday.”

In principle, there is a version that this whole thing was built by aliens, because how could ancient people drag it to such a distance? high mountain 8-9 meter statues. But, in my opinion, although this whole sanctuary looks very impressive, the issues of complexity of construction disappear when you have slaves.

Like the Egyptian rulers, Antiochus built a kind of pyramid in the center of the tomb - a 50-meter mound of stones. However, the greatness of this project lies in the fact that the mound crowned a 2-kilometer mountain.

The terrace facing the eastern side was most revered; here, in addition to mystical statues, there is an altar in the form of a stepped pyramid and a stone wall. The ledges in the west and east of the tomb are connected by a gallery, at the entrance of which huge stone eagles sit. On the eastern terrace, in addition to the main altar, five wonderful, 8-9 m high, throne statues of King Antiochus I and the Greek, Western Asian and Iranian gods - Zeus-Ahuramazda, Apollo-Mithras-Helios, Artagenes-Heracles-Ares and the goddess Tyche of Commagene - have been preserved. Each statue was guarded by statues of lions and eagles standing on its sides. Nearby are four monumental reliefs depicting the king and four gods, as well as a relief with a horoscope, where the deified ruler is placed in the constellation Leo.

The mountain offers superb views of the Ataturk Reservoir. By the way, the third largest “lake” in Turkey.

The pyramid hill apparently contains the tomb of Antiochus, although archaeologists have still not been able to discover it. The lower part of the hill was surrounded by a stone wall, along the top of which there was a road for ceremonial processions, connecting three terraces located on the sides of the hill - from the east, west and north. For unknown reasons, the northern terrace remained unfinished, while the western and eastern ones were built according to the same plan, with the only difference being that on the eastern one there was a huge stone altar (apparently intended for performing ceremonial sacrifices in the light of the rising sun).
The statues on the western terrace are in much worse condition. On both terraces, six reliefs of the royal ancestors of Antiochus I also survived. Even today, fragments of these huge sculptures amaze tourists.

One interesting feature complex is the position of the gods. In both Greek and Persian culture, it was customary for statues of gods to stand. In exceptional cases - in the named temples of one or another god - the deity was given the right to sit on the throne. On Mount Nemrut-Dag the gods sit on their thrones, because, according to Antiochus, it was here that the gods found their refuge.

In the first picture are Hercules and Apollo, in the second are Apollo and Seryozha.

 

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