Having finished with
the Sanliurfa area and Göbekli Tepe, we traveled towards Adiyaman for our last
day in Turkey. We were still very close
to the border with Syria, too. I couldn’t
help but wonder if northern Syria was also replete with interesting ancient
sites and ruins like those that we had seen in SE Turkey, and in a few days, would be seeing
in Lebanon.
Our route took us
along the Euphrates River and past the Atatürk dam and power plant. Sadly, the building of this dam flooded many
ancient sites. The main enclosure of
Nevali Cori was actually moved to the Sanliurfa Museum and reconstructed before
the flooding could destroy it.
We were
in a high security area, so there were several police check points to go
through. Lunch was a delightful and
relaxing affair in a restaurant overlooking the reservoir that was created by
the dam.
At some point, we
again switched to two minivans, and after crossing an ancient Roman bridge,
the
drive up to the top of Mount Nemrut started in earnest. This was to be our final activity in
Turkey. The top of this mountain is at
6500 feet in elevation. On the top are
the remains of the monuments that Antiochus I built before his death as a
memorial to himself. The gods Tyche,
Zeus, Apollo, and Heracles are featured as well as lions and eagles.
The big deal here is
to be on the top at sunset to view the west terrace, or at sunrise for the east
terrace. Unfortunately, the mountain was
getting more and more socked in with a drizzly fog so that by the time we
arrived, the visibility was very poor.
In spite of that, it was also very crowded with tourists.
The remaining climb
to the top was a 750 foot elevation gain on nice stone walkways and steps,
then wooden walkways, and on the way back down, a pretty rough and slippery stone
path with steep steps. Several of the
ladies in our group took a mule up to the top because of their physical
limitations, and one took the mule both ways.
That was a sight to see for sure!
Here are my
photos.
The drizzle cleared up a bit momentarily at the top, and then we were socked in again making the hike down on the rougher rocky path somewhat slow and potentially dangerous. Note that most
photos of this site that can be found on the internet show the remains of the statues in the warm glow of the
rising or setting sun. The views are
supposed to be spectacular. My
experience here was a testament to my persistence and endurance. That is how I will remember it!
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