Turkey 🇹🇷 ~Nemrut Dağı Mount Nemrut”

• September 26, 2020
• By Pen
• 3 Comments

We went off the grid, in order to see this site, and it was even more fabulous than we had imagined! Turkey has so much to offer, and we keep adding to our itinerary. We extended our rental car contract, because we don’t want to miss a thing!

We are loving our time here, very much and Turkey will go down as one of our favorite country visits of all times. This is saying a lot, since I have visited 81 countries, at the time of this blog!

We dealt with a “road closure,” coming from Cappadocia to this region; according to the lady in the maps, so we had an extra adventure getting to this remote location.

It was getting very dark by the time we arrived to the site, and this was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing was we saw a small herd of wild, Long-Horned Goats, cross in front of us on the road, which is a rare sighting, according to our understanding. The curse part was the pavement went away and turned to gravel. It wasn’t a super bad road, but we were pushing daylight and had driven six hours, and we really wanted to see what we came to see. It was def a race against  time. We had no hotel, and no dinner again, as this remote location has little to offer in those particular things. The other blessing was, we did reach this site, just in time for the sunset, so the lighting was amazing, right along with the sun going down. It was quite spectacular! The curse was, it got too dark to see both the East and West terraces, since it was quite a climb to the top of Mount Nemrut, after parking our car. We kept our tickets and hoped to return the next day, if we found a hotel close enough that returning would not take too much time.

Our first visit to this remote site, we were a bit surprised with the number of people who were also there to see the site and sunset. (maybe 10 people). Where we were parked, there was only one other car and a motorcycle. It was a long way up the rough gravel road, so we could not understand where these people came from, or how they would make their way out, after dark. The other mystery was the size of the site. I had some knowledge of what was there, before we arrived, and according to what I saw in photos, I knew there was a lot more to this place, than what we saw. In addition, we could see the walkway that went someplace on the other side of the mountain, but it was too dark to take it on. For the time being, we did love what we got to see that night. All our questions would be answered the next day, in the daylight hours.

EAST TERRACE

After we saw some of Mount Nemrut, and the sunset, we got back to our car and slowly, and I mean S L OW L Y made our way back down the mountain. Thankfully, there were some reflectors on the switchback road, so we would know not to drive off the cliff! We had a half moon, but it did not offer much light. I had a weak 3G signal, but it was enough to get the maps going. We headed towards a hotel that was the closest we could find. It would take us another hour and a half on this dark mountain road. Imagine our delight, when we pulled up to this hotel out in the middle of NOWHERE, and they had the gate open and lights on! It was about 8:30PM. We were the only guests, so of course they had a room. The price was a little high at $44 for one night, but given the circumstances, we booked the room. The staff was great, and even came up with some food for us. It was delicious and so appreciated! We were suppose to have A/C, as the wind was still all night, so it did not cool down from the high temps of the day. The A/C just made a lot of noise and it was only a fan. There was to be WIFI, but that did not work, either. Normally, I would make a fuss about these things, because we did pay the price for amenities, but they were so welcoming and helpful with luggage and food, it felt like we got our moneys worth!

By 9AM, the next morning, we were packed up and out the door. I got the maps working in the phone, and was very surprised to learn Mount Nemrut was 20 minutes away! WHAT? 🤣 We got underway and had a wonderful cobbled-stone roadway the whole distance, too. The scenery was not to be missed, so a daytime drive is a must in this region. I was in awe and enjoyed taking photos. We saw domesticated goats and herders. This was it for movement, on this morning.

We pulled into the UNESCO site of Mount Nemrut on a totally different side of the mountain. Here, there was a museum, parking lot and shuttle. Only problem was there was a locked gate and nobody around. We sat for a minute wondering how long we would have to wait for the opening, when a car pulled up. A man got out and did unlock the gate, but indicated to us, we could not enter and pointed to the closed museum. Daryl waved the tickets we had from the night before, and that worked. The man let us in and we were so happy! We did not need the shuttle, obviously, so we made our way to the next level of parking. We parked the car on the side of the mountain and chocked the tires with a stone brick, so it wouldn’t roll away, and began our slow assent, once more, to the top of the ancient site. On this side, there was a sign posted, indicating the East Terrace or the West Terrace trail. We had no idea what side we saw the night before, so this was a dilemma for us. In the end, it didn’t matter which route we took, because they both led up to both terraces for viewing. We chose the left trail, which was the West Terrace. It took us directly to the part of the Mount Nemrut we did not get to see the night before. We took it all in and then made our way back down, by the East trail, which got us back to our car. So far, so good. We got back in our car and drove back down to the exit/entrance at the Museum, but guess what? The gate was closed and locked! Oh brother. We had a long drive ahead of us and needed to get on the road in this remote region. The big guy got out and found somebody, thankfully with a key to the gate, who was on the backside of the closed museum. Whew, we lucked-out again!

WEST TERRACE

What we learned: The road closure the lady in the maps talked about when coming from Cappadocia to Mount Nemrut, is the reason we came in on the more remote side of the mountain. Had we come from the opposite direction, we would not have had the same road closure. It certainly made for an exciting and beautiful drive. The other thing we learned from visiting this site two times, is late afternoon and sunset is the very best lighting for photography. Also, when climbing up the trail from the museum side, defiantly take the East Terrace trail, as it is a little shorter, and this is the one I noticed the security guards took, when arriving for duty. Both trails are long and straight up. The West trail was very good with cement and block steps. The East trail does not have a completed trail as yet, so the top portion has gravel and stones which are slippery because of the grade, but we made it; though slow. There are benches to sit on and rest; unfortunately there is no shade. We do not do these kind of climbs fast, but we do make it. Morning was hot and so was evening, so there was no difference for September. Bring a hat and water.