We usually know the Egyptian Pyramids as the most mysterious structures in the world, right? But most of us are unaware of Mount Nemrut within the borders of Turkey, which is so mysterious. Mount Nemrut is a magnificent example of Ancient Roman architecture. The Kingdom of Komagene is a kingdom that has defeated the strongest army in the world. Meet King Antiochos, whose name is at the head. The main character of our subject. Do you remember King Nemrut? There is a great similarity between them and Antiochos. He also saw himself as big like Nemrut and declared his immortality and buried him in Mount Nemrut. Speaking of mountain, if you think this hill is a natural hill, you are hunting. This fifty-meter-high place is entirely man-made, and within it lies a great secret that has been waiting to be revealed for two thousand years. Mount Nemrut takes its name from the ruthless Babylonian ruler Nemrut, who threw the greetings of Prophet Abraham into fire. Located in the Kahta district of Adıyaman, the only connection of this mountain with Nemrut stems from its name, one of the word meanings of Nemrud is immortal. This phenomenon of immortality is the most important piece of the puzzle that emerged with Mount Nemrut. One of the biggest goals of Antiochos, the kingdom of Komagene, the protagonist of Mount Nemrut, was to become immortal. Just like the pharaohs and the Babylonian King Nimrod, he went so far as to put himself in the place of god. The story of Mount Nemrut begins at this point. It is possible to see statues, tumuli and mausoleums from the past on Mount Nemrut, which is unique anywhere in the world, but one mausoleum on Mount Nemrut is completely unique. When Tutankhamun’s tomb was found, it is obvious how it sounded around the world. If this mausoleum, hidden on Mount Nemrut, can be discovered one day, it will be as valuable and important as Tutankhamun, as it will be the first unearthed tomb of a ruler who lived in the Hellenistic period. Why would anyone want to bury themselves in such a place where the conditions at an altitude of two thousand one hundred and fifty meters are almost impossible? This place, which has been in the hands of many archaeologists, treasure hunters and grave thieves from all over the world for many years, has been tried to be opened many times and to capture the secret behind it, but no one has been able to achieve this because the mausoleum has a complex system just like the Egyptian Pyramids and it Being able to create this hill, which is more than fifty meters high in a difficult place, still continues to puzzle many researchers today. Although historians do not approve of such thoughts, let’s point out that there are also those who think that there was an extraterrestrial intervention in the construction of this seemingly impossible tomb on Mount Nemrut. Of course, that’s the fun part.
WHAT IS THE MYSTERY OF MOUNT NEMRUT?
The connection of some star maps found in the tomb with the Sirius Star is not a target for conspiracy theories. The planets Mars, Mercury and Jupiter are on the horoscope in the lion statue found. Taken together with other stars, it has emerged that it symbolizes an astrological event that takes place once in 25 thousand years. The star map associated with the death date of King Antiochos has also been the cause of many theories dating back to the salutation of the Prophet Jesus (pbuh). It is also possible to come across the incredible story of the tomb and the mysterious tunnels that go hundreds of meters below the ground around Mount Nemrut.
King Antiochos, the most well-known ruler of the Kingdom of Komagene, which ruled in the geography of today’s cities of Adıyaman, Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş, gave the Kingdom of Komagene its heyday in 69 and 37 BC. Antiochus says he is a descendant of Alexander the Great. During his reign, Zeugma, another gate of the Euphrates, was given to him as a gift. Komagene is also famous for its wealth and treasures. The Kingdom of Komagene ruled in a strategically very important region as it dominated the borders separating Mesopotamia and Anatolia in the Roman period. Antiochos, who had the kingdom of a region very rich in terms of natural resources, was of course a king who was the target of other states. In these lands where he was the king, the Hittites ruled four thousand years ago today. When it came to 600 BC, this geography passed into the hands of Babylon first and then the great Persian Empire. But neither Babylon nor the Persian Empire was aware of the imminent danger that Alexander the Great, who had emerged from Macedonia and had dominated much of the then known world, was to seize these lands as well. The progeny of the Kingdom of Komagene, which would be established hundreds of years later, would thus be based on Alexander the Great. King Antiochos had a dream and a plan to establish a new religion and spread this religion to the world. If he can do this, allwould rule the world. In addition, as we have seen in many examples in history, he declared himself a god and had a magnificent mausoleum built for himself on the top of Mount Nemrut at an altitude of two thousand one hundred and fifty meters above sea level. Antiochos, who had magnificent statues built on the north, west and east sides of the mountain, had a magnificent project for his own statue.
He had a special section built for giant statues representing gods of other faiths, and placed his own statue at the top of the other gods. He had already been sculpted many times while shaking hands with the gods. It had a section right in front of his tomb where he sat side by side with other gods for thousands of years. Although he wanted people to visit this place and worship the gods after him, over time, the heads of each of the god statues were cut off and scattered around. The monument was sketched in miniature form to get an idea of what the statues looked like when it was first built. As for who the statues belong to, from left to right, King Antiochos is right next to Goddess Fortuna, in the middle, Zeus, one of the most recognizable names of Greek mythology, followed by Apelle and Heracles. One of the most important features of the sculptures is; The will of King Antiochos, which was written by him right behind the statues, which you cannot see due to their location when you visit. In addition, he did not neglect to curse some people who will visit Mount Nemrut. The long text written in Greek, which is a testament of 326 lines, contains information about this place and the provisions that it wants to be implemented after it. In addition to all this information, there is also the following curse: “Whoever, among those who visit this place in the future, corrupts and harms the holy validity of this order or the monument of mercy confirmed by the immortal will, or tries to change its true meaning, not only himself; At the same time, may all the gods of my dead ancestors incur the wrath of all their descendants, until they receive their full punishment.” Markos Antinious, who was eyeing the treasure that Antiochos had during his life, wanted to have all the wealth of Komagene and surrounded Komagene with the army of the Roman Empire. But in an unexpected way, Antiochos managed to win this war. Thus, Antiochos, who became even more deified in the eyes of his people, died two years after this struggle with Rome. Everything went as planned and, as predicted, Antiochos was buried in a tomb that stretched the limits of our imagination. This Tumulus, which was thought to be fifty-five meters high when it was first built, but fell to fifty meters in time, almost astonishes those who see it. It’s a man-made hill. This place, which was formed by the piling of millions of stones, each the size of a fist, on the burial chamber, was tried to be scraped many times, but no result could be reached. Because the way it is made does not allow to reach the grave. Traces of a work caused by a wide opening are evident. As the stones are moved, the other stones above are piled on the opened space. Thus, the process reaches the starting point again. This mausoleum on Mount Nemrut, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is in danger of extinction if it continues to be excavated, so no action can be taken.
WHAT IS THE MYSTERY OF MOUNT NEMRUT?
The fact that the scientific world was aware of the existence of such a magnificent work on the top of Mount Nemrut corresponds to 1881. Nemrut Mountain began to seem cursed in a way as the rumors of people entering the creepy tunnels stretching deep underground near Nemrut increased and they never came out again. Osman Hamdi Bey was sent to follow up on behalf of the Ottoman Imperial Museum in order to control the excavations started by the researchers, who were almost fascinated. After this incident, work was interrupted for about fifty years. In 1937, young archaeologist Car Korner started to work on Nemrut. In 1952, New York archaeologist Teresa Kulen came to Nemrut with great excitement. Mount Nemrut was not in a place where it could be protected from the sun, as it was necessary to travel for hours to obtain water in such a difficult place to work. However, Teresa was obsessed with King Antiochos for once, but it is not such a nickname, she almost devoted her life to reaching him and stayed in Nemrut for thirty-one years. Years of work in difficult conditions as a result, he could not reach Teresa Antiochos, who was aging in Nemrut. Teresa, who gave up and returned to America at a time when her hair turned gray and her ears began to fail, returned to Nemrut years later in a jar. She was dead now, she. As stated in his will, a person named Yusuf Aydın put the ashes of Teresa’s cremated body in a jar and took the road to Nemrut from America. Reaching the tomb of Antiochos, the man scattered her ashes on the top of the Tumulus where Antiochos was located, upon Teresa’s request. Teresa may not have been able to reach Antiochos while she was alive, but her lifeless body met with Antiochos on Mount Nemrut.
It’s time for the underground tunnels, which are believed to have surrounded Nemrut and have not yet been found due to the lack of work on a scale to be unearthed. There are such tunnels that, contrary to popular belief, it is even thought that the people of Komagene lived in underground cities connected by these tunnels, not above ground. In the tunnels located near Mount Nemrut; even its first stages at the entrance of the tunnel are eerie. The end of this tunnel, which is 157 meters long and extends underground at a vertical angle, has been closed. How much more than these mysterious tunnels unearthed in the corners of mountains that one cannot imagine; How far do these tunnels go? Such questions are quite intriguing. So much so that, according to a legend spread among the people, it is even believed that a tunnel that lives in a place near Mount Nemrut, but whose location is unknown, leads to the tomb of the king. The tunnels going underground and the reasons why ancient people lived in underground cities is a very interesting subject!
