Giza Pyramids in the Alps (Adıyaman)

The tomb of Antiochus I, emperor of the free Kingdom of Commagene, looks like an Egyptian pyramid put on top of a Swiss mountain. I have seldom seen such a spectacular sight (the photos do not give half the impression), visible from more than 50 km afar and looking ever more incredible when approached on long and winding alpine pass roads. The Commagene people have in a worldwide unique way changed the face of a complete mountain range.

Compared with the Giza pyramids in Cairo whose original height is close to 150 m the giant heap of rubble that is collected here is comparatively small (only 50 m) but raises from a mountain top that stands with more than 2.100 m higher than all the other summits around. This is Mount Nemrut.


I had never learned anything about the Kingdom of Commagene in my history lessons. It obviously has left no written witness of its own history. It is thought to be one with Kummuhu that is mentioned in Assyrian texts. The family of emperor Antiochus I. who called himself Theos, God of Commagene claimed to have Alexander the Great and Darius, the Persian King among its ancestors.

Antiochus I. lived from 86 to 38 before Christ. His successors tried to keep their independence from Rome, lost it, regained it but finally lost it in 72 AD for good. History forgot the Commagene people until in 1881 a German engineer, Karl Sester, building roads in Anatolia discovered it again.

The statues around the rubble hill are relatively well preserved. Experts see Greek and Persian art combined in their vivid faces. My favorite figure is the eagle with its harmonic design. The truth is simple, is what the head says. And strong.

The truth about a balanced culture, well in peace with its neighbors, precisely balanced between east and west, might be: if you are good to everyone nobody will remember you forever. Bad boys make history, good boys are forgotten.

I wished it was the other way around.