Kurdistan: Arsameia

                                       Malatya (Melitene)

•apricot capital of Turkey, base for Nemrut Dagi (instead of Adiyaman or Kahta)

•3,000 years old town, Hittites (Melid), roman (Melitene)

•the Byzantine town was at Battalgazi (Arslantepe)

•Kahta : nearby Karakus (burial place of the royal ladies of the roman-era kingdom of Commagene) 

                    Arsameia

•the Roman-period city of king Antiochos

•Nemrut – Nemrud : mountain 2,150 m high. Kings of Commagene from 80 BC to 72 AD rules Adiyaman and vicinity. Its capital was Samosata (Samsat) founded 80 BC by Mithridates father of Antiochos.

•The magnificent ruins on the summit are not those of an inhabited site, however. They are instead the famous tumulus (burial mound) and

•hierotheseion : a word that means the sacred burial precint of the royal family -whose use is only known in Commagene- of King Antiochos I who ruled from 69 to 36 BC.

•In a cult inscription Antiochos declares that he had the site built for the ages and generations that were to follow him as a dept of thanks to the gods and to his deified ancestors for their manifest assistance. The king also declares that his aim was to provide for the people an example of the piety that the gods commanded be shown towards the gods and towards ancestors.

•Mt Nemrud discovered in 1881. There is no mention in scriptures

•The tumulus on the summit measures 50 m high and covers an area 150 m in diameter.

•It is formed of stones the size of a fist and is bounded on the east, west and north by terraced courts carved out of the native rock.

•The eastern court was the center of the sacred precint. It is surrounded on the west by colossal statues, on the east by a fire altat in the shape of a stepped pyramid and on the north and south by low walls of orthostats (upright stone slabs) standing on a long narrow base.

•Antiochos’ father was Persian, his mother Greek Macedonian

•On the north are the Persian ancestors, in the south Macedonian ancestors

•Dareios, founder of Achemenid dynasty

•Names carved on the rear of statues

•In the front of each statue, an altar for sacrifices

•Statues made of blocks of limestone

•Eastern terrace : Antiochos, goddess Kommagene, Zeus –Oromasdes, Apollo_Mithras, Heracles – Antagnes

•On one side an eagle, on the other a lion

•Gods wear Persian headgear

•The remains of Antiochos should be under the tumulus. Investigations have revealed a rocky hill under the tumulus

•rock statue of Mithras

•The rock room is a tunnel 158 m long

•The longest inscription found in Anatolia at the entrance of the cult cave

•A huge relief showing Antiochos shaking hands with Heracles

Karakus Hill

•It is actually a tumulus, burial of the kings. 35 m high surrounded by four 9-10 m columns. On one of these columns is an eagle statue from which the village derives its name (Karakus= blackbird)