Day four continued - with pictures!

One of the best things of the trip with Marc and Yusuf was meeting all of Yusuf’s friends. He’s been driving tourists up to Nemrut forever so, naturally, there were countless nephews to be met all over the place! Almost all the people we met were Kurds, extremely kind and uncomplicated people. It wasn’t always easy to make out whether one of them was really related to Yusuf, but at least we met his (real) uncle, who worked for the government in the national park and invited us to tea in his little hut on the summit of the mountain.

The huge Ataturk Dam, the largest dam in the Middle East
The scenery was fantastic and there were many sights to see on the road to the peak. First, we stopped at a tumulus, an ancient burial mound with some columns around it. Marc and I circled it and admired the views on the nearby plains and mountains while the sun did its best to scorch us off our minds. Marc explained to me how, before the Romans arrived, all of this was a small kingdom ruled by the Commagenes. Never heard of them before, but they certainly chose a nice spot for their realm. Afterwards, we stopped at an ancient Roman bridge, constructed out of stones taken from the columns we had just seen at the burial mound. Some locals had come to take a dip in the stream, which was extremely fresh and clear, and it would have been very tempting to join them. We stopped again to have tea with Yusuf’s friends, then continued high up to a mountain village (passing Yusuf’s aunt on the way, who was walking up the road).

There are several small villages in the national park and the inhabitants get around by hopping on tourist buses and vans. We had several of them with us and they always would shake hands and behave in a very modest and down-to-earth manner. It was incredible to see the villages where they lived. One would think it’s a curse to live so isolated from the rest of the world, but one only had to look at how happily the families’ children played with each other to realise it doesn’t take much to make people happy. And they were really beautiful people, with some of the most wonderful eyes I have ever seen.

The last stretch of road before the summit was in bad condition and very curvy. On top of this, the suspension between the wheels of our minibus broke down, and we had to drive very slowly. From the parking space at the top we still had to climb on foot for about ten minutes to reach the eastern terrace of the ruins. The Commagene king had statues built at the top of the mountain – the statues were of the king himself next to the Gods, his “relatives”. He put one set on what is called the eastern terrace, so they could watch the sunrise, and on the other side he put another set of Gods to watch the sunset. Obviously, the only place suitable for this was the highest peak of the region. The heads have fallen off (vandalism and earthquakes) and lie scattered in front of the huge sitting bodies of the statues. Some of the heads alone are over two meters in hight.


Trying to fix the car, with the summit of Mount Nemrut in the background.
It was fantastic to finally reach the peak and gaze at the surrounding scenery. And who else was it possible to bump into but a big group of German mountain climbers. From the eastern terrace, we made our way around the huge burial mound (the grave of the king himself has not been found to this day) to the western terrace, which was more impressive than the eastern one. We had around two hours to walk around before the sun set. The expressions on the faces of the ancient gods was what impressed me most – it was like the eyes were really looking into eternity, and they have been lying there all these hundreds and hundreds of years for anybody to come and see them. It’s like they are looking at us from a different world.


There were several other people on the top. I met a Turkish boy from Adana. He was almost my age and, as usual, could hardly speak any English but we could communicate more or less. I told him I only knew one song by a Turkish musician, Sertab Erener. He was thrilled, and eagerly replied: “Finland Eurovision!!” Well, I suppose there are many different ways to have a cultural exchange. I also walked around by myself on the mountain, listening to fitting music on my iPod, like Sibelius and Rheinberger’s “Abendlied” for choir which hit the nail on the head when the sun started to set.



But of course just listening to the silence was all the more stunning. I only saw the sun set once on Mount Nemrut, but it’s even more impressive to think that the sun is going to set there again today, and tomorrow, and every day for as long as we are able to count time. And there are so many places like it in the world – places where humans have left their mark in nature, probably knowing it would survive for ages to come. Places where anyone can come and gaze in awe at the result of somebody’s idea, which at the time must have seemed like a madman’s plan, but now doesn’t seem that crazy at all. They are places which lead their own lives, majestic and breathtaking, in their own isolated and mysterious world, on a different level from our day-to-day life. For the gods on Mount Nemrut, one day is like a minuscule drop in a vast barrel, but for us that one day can leave a very lasting impression. Everybody should see a place like it some time in their life.

Gazing at the sunset, into eternity.