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Archaeologists determined Mount Nemrut's summit cone is artificial, after Texier's 1881 report

TürkiyeArtifact
Tomb500 BC - 1 AD
Do The 5 Statues of Nemrut Contain an Ancient Code that Unlocks Something? | LCP #8
Source: Do The 5 Statues of Nemrut Contain an Ancient Code that Unlocks Something? | LCP #8 by Matthew LaCroix

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📄 Mount Nemrut🗺️ More sites in Türkiye🌍 Show on the globe

Mount Nemrut's summit cone isn't natural bedrock — it's an artificial mountain built from loose granular limestone rubble 🏔️

Carl Friedrich Texier reported the colossal summit monuments in 1881, and archaeologists excavated the site in campaigns from 1882 through 1954. Their fieldwork showed the cone includes a core roughly 5–6 m deep in crushed limestone.

The terraces hold colossal seated statues, with a later North Terrace added. The site was found destroyed, heads separated from bodies. Bodies are carved in hard grey limestone, but the heads are noticeably whiter limestone — a detail worth returning to! ⛏️

Key facts

  • Carl Friedrich Texier reported the colossal summit monuments of Mount Nemrut in 1881, and archaeologists excavated and studied the site in campaigns from 1882 through 1954
  • Those early archaeologists determined that the summit cone is artificial, made of loose granular limestone rubble rather than natural bedrock
  • The video says the cone includes a core roughly 5-6 m deep in crushed limestone material used to build up the artificial mountain
  • The site comprises an artificial summit cone with East and West terraces carrying colossal seated statues, plus a later North Terrace, and was found in a destroyed state with heads separated from bodies
  • Statue bodies are carved from a hard grey limestone, while the heads are noticeably whiter limestone; Hellenistic-style tile architecture and retaining walls are also documented at the site

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Sources

Nemrut Dağwhc.unesco.org
Crowning one of the highest peaks of the Eastern Taurus mountain range in south-east Turkey, Nemrut Dağ is the Hierotheseion (temple-tomb and house of the gods)
Exploring Mount Nemrut - A Meeting Point Between East & ...worldhistory.org
it is a 600-metre (1,960 feet) climb. On its summit, at an altitude of 2,150 metres (7,000 feet), he built a high tumulus (artificial mound) ...
Mount Nemrutturkisharchaeonews.net
Until now, it has not been possible to determine with certainty what the artificial embankment on the peak of the mountain conceals. What's ...
Mount Nemruten.wikipedia.org
Mount Nemrut or Nemrud is a 2,150-metre-high (7,054 ft) mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues are erected ...
Nemrut Dağ | History, Description, & Factsbritannica.com
Nemrut Dağ is a mountaintop in the Taurus Mountains near Adıyaman, Turkey, that is the site of the enormous 1st-century-BCE mausoleum of Antiochus I of ...
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