Tue, Apr 16, 2013
One may be astonished to stand in front of the pyramids of Egypt and wonder how mortals could usually transport stone blocks weighing tons and stack them up to form Pharaonic tombs. But to turn an entire mountain peak into a tomb borders on foolhardiness and is unique in world history. On the southern flank of the Taurus Mountains, at 2,159 metres above sea level, buried under almost 200,000 cubic metres of scree and rock, archaeologists suspect the burial chamber of the legendary ruler who once brought the myths of the ancient Persian empires into harmony with the pantheon and lifestyle of the Greeks and Romans. Since the beginning of the exploration of the Ancient Orient, the monumental tomb of the self-proclaimed God King Antiochios I. Theos on the summit of Mount Nemrut near the provincial capital Adiyaman in today's southeast Turkey has been one of the wonders of the ancient world. Since 1987 the UNESCO leads the cult place on the mountain including surrounding countryside as world cultural heritage. Today, the tomb is an icon of all those mysteries of the past that have so far been able to elude their secrets from research. Dozens of stone sculptures up to 8 metres high on the two terraces below the artificially raised mountain top are considered by many to be the answer of the Near East to the stone idols of the Easter Islands. They are the last witnesses of the "Commagenic Kingdom", an enigmatic ruling dynasty that once emerged from the world empires of Alexander the Great and the Persian King Darius I and resisted the power and territorial claims of the Roman Caesars for generations.