Nemrut, Mount

Nemrut, Mount, Turk. Nemrut Dağ, mountain in SE Turkey, in the Anti-Taurus Mts. Rising 7,052 ft (2,150 m), it is the site of the mausoleum of Antiochus I (c.69–c.34 BC), king of ancient Commagene . The complex, which includes a 500-ft- (152-m-) wide and 164-ft- (50-m-) tall pyramidal tomb, gigantic (c.30 ft/9 m) stone busts of the kingdom's gods and rulers, and a wall with magnificent carved reliefs, is one of the most impressive monuments of Hellenistic civilization . The gods depicted, worshipped by Antiochus and his people, represent an unusual merging of Western (Greek) and Eastern (Persian) cultures, reflected in such divine names as Zeus-Oromasdes and Apollo-Mithras. The Mount Nemrut ruins were discovered in 1881 and declared a UN World Heritage Site in 1987.

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