Nemrut: Throne of Gods

The Nemrut is a mountain of the Taurus Range. From a height of 2,206 metres it dominates the entire landscape. From whatever side you approach it, its distinctive peak can be seen. The mountain is only accessible during the summer months. The rest of the year it is covered by snow and ice.

The last priest of Kommagene probably left the sanctuary on Mount Nemrut in 72 A.D., after the rebelling King Antiochos IV had lost the war with Rome. For almost two thousand years, only the wailing of the wind disturbed the rest of the three kings who are buried here.

The builder of the sanctuary, King Antiochos, wanted it not only to be his Hierothesion, but also the centre of his new religion. This religion had to unite in a peaceful fashion, the Persian Parthian world with the Greek Roman world.  From the top of Mount Nemrut his new religion would radiate over the whole world. Three terraces were built on the mountain. The East, West and North Terrace.

To make these terraces large enough, the builders of Kommagene had to cut away almost the whole mountains top.
For the East Terrace alone 1,500 cubic metres of solid rock had to be cut away. On the West Terrace, you can see from a ten metre high rock face, left of the summit, what an enormous undertaking it must have been.

The burial mound (tumulus), which covers the top of Mount Nemrut, was built from the innumerable pieces of angular and sharp stones thus produced. The tumulus has a height of 50 metres and at the base a diameter of 150 metres. An ancient processional way surrounds the tumulus.

SOURCE: the International Nemrud Foundation