Amazing Antiquity

 

We continued into an area that had a gate and a road that led to our final destination, Mount Nemrut. However, first we visited the steles and statues of King Antiochus on the way. That man did nothing small.

 

 

Nadya, who with David ran a guesthouse in Montenegro for several years, and is a fit and happy traveler - lens test - I had slipped and slammed my lens into the rock. Had to make sure it still focused. She was the willing test subject.

 

One set of statues of the good king Antiochus and Hercules, but wait, it gets better. Lots of earthquake damage here when they fell.
Going up above the two broken statues
As we climbed higher, the rugged landscape left a lasting impression. You can see the first statue depicted on this page, below us.
Finally, as we reached the top, the castle we saw earlier was now below us. You can see the cool path and some restoration work in progress. If I were to go back, I would want to climb up there.

 

I had read about and seen maps that showed tunnels carved through this mountain that connect all of the sites. I assume that the priests and royalty used them to move around during religious festivals. This one was barred.

 

Finally, there it was. The plaque/statue that one sees in the books of Antiochus shaking the hand of Hercules

 

Then we saw the tunnel entrance and there was no question that we would go in. I gave my LED headlamp to David, since I was encumbered with my DSLR, and he led the way for us.

 

The bottom, and unfortunately, that's where it was blocked. We had gone down a long way and there was no trace of daylight here. This picture was shot solely with the light from theLED headlamp. David actually could see beyond the blockage, but we were not equipped to move those rocks. A pair of leather gloves, that I carry in my large backpack, left in Istanbul, would have done the trick.

 

Three people (or parts thereof) in this picture, taken by Nadya of our ascent. By that time we had daylight back, and a non-flash image relied on us holding still.

 

We were not exactly unhappy to get back to daylight, but this was an experience we would not have wanted to do without.

 

There was literally a mountain of reading material here, provided you can read the language. This one was written in Greek

 

Turkey 2011

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