The Ruins of Nemrud Dagh: 2000 years ago East met West at the shrine of Antiochus I
The Ruins of Nemrud Dagh: 2000 years ago East met West at the shrine of Antiochus I
Seven thousand feet high in the Anti-Taurus mountains of Turkey stands Nemrud Dagh, the mount of Nimrod. On this parched and stony summit there has lain for the past 2,000 years one of the great monuments of antiquity, a sanctuary which by its beauty outstandingly exemplifies the amalgam of East and West, of Persian, Greek and Anatolian cultures. It was raised in the first century of our era by Antiochus I, King of Commagene, to be a "holy common room of all the Gods" and a palace of pilgrimage for his people.
Hewn from the mountain rock, the sanctuary consists of three terraces levelled on the summit and decorated with mighty statues of the King and his Gods which tower on their bases to the height of a five-storey building. Portrait reliefs of the "heroic company of the King's ancestors" grace the terrace walls; above these and the statues too, Antiochus I caused the rock chippings to be piled into a tumulus, a great man-made false peak rising in perfect symmetry for 150 feet on the mountain top. Is this the King's burial chamber? Archaeologists believe the rocky cairn to be his tomb but so far it has defied exploration.