Mt. Nemrut

While looking for a trip to Eastern Turkey, there were two places that had to be included - Mt Nemrut and another which you will see later. Mt Nemrut is located near Kahta, which is near Adiyaman. It's about 7000 feet high. After visiting Harran, we drove to our hotel which was located a little ways up the mountain in the middle of nowhere. It was such a funny hotel, very very basic, but surrounded by absolutely gorgeous scenery. There were dead moths in our rooms, I had a window that led to a creepy attic space, Art and Sheila's door creaked so loudly it could wake the dead, and their nightstand's (one of two pieces of furniture in our rooms) drawers would not stay open so they had to put a backpack up against it. There were frogs which were so loud and cows running around, including through the laundry on the line. It was great. Quiet, simple, and friendly, with good dinner and breakfast and even wireless. It is called Hotel Kervansaray if you decide to go.



View from my window (not the weird one leading to attic space)





The man in the middle is our trusty van driver, Mehmet.



Chicken with bulgur. We saw people in a van bring the food up to the hotel (it's REALLY isolated) and we saw them take it in the pans to the neighboring hotel (same elongated stone building - brothers own the two hotels) to be cooked because there is only one cook for the 2 hotels.

The reason we are staying at this funny hotel is to visit the statues on the top of Mt. Nemrut. A king, Antiochus, decided to have statues of him and other gods (such as Apollo, Hercules..) and some animals carved up on the mountain back in about 60BC. Some face east and some face west in order to catch the sun coming up or setting. We left the hotel at 4:30 in the morning to drive a little bit more up the mountain, and then hike for about 20 minutes. It's not an easy hike, especially with the altitude, and also it is really really windy and cold. But it's absolutely amazing. The landscape is wonderful, the light is fantastic, and the size and beauty of the statues really just leaves you in awe.



Before the sun came up...



After the sun came up!



The heads used to be on the bases you see a little bit up the mountain, but due to time, earthquakes, or vandalism the heads are now on the ground. The little mountain in the middle is man made and there is speculation that there is a tomb inside. On the other side is the western platform with more heads to watch the sun set.





They are about human height I think? We weren't allowed to stand right next to them but they are pretty tall and massive.





Statues on the other side.



We returned to the hotel, thawed out, ate some breakfast, and continued to see some spectacular scenery. We took a nerve-racking, white-knuckled, eye shutting car ride through the mountains but it was well worth it.





Also a long time ago some people decided to carved some stelai, I can't remember who this one is of but the next one is King Antiochus and a very muscular Hercules





A normal picture of me - my eyes aren't closed, mouth open, or neck stretched up. How unusual!


On a completely random note, I'm reading "All Creatures Great and Small" by James Herriot and I LOVE it! You have to go to the library or your nearest independent bookstore and get it and read it now. I have a pretty old copy that I brought back from my room in the States - I was reading it in Cappadocia and something fell out of it. It was a letter written to me from a girl I met while I was traveling with my family around the world when I was 7. We met in Australia, she was the same age and it was nice to have a playmate for a few days, and we kept in touch and even visited each other one summer, but after about a year our contact died out. This letter is written in an 8 year old's scrawl and it was so funny to find while in the middle of nowhere.

I can't tell you what an amazing and strange place Turkey is. The geography and terrain has been absolutely wonderful, we have been in the car for so many hours but I never get bored of looking out the window. Cave churches, underground cities, carved heads on top of mountains, carved statues on the sides of mountains - what is this place??