Friday, March 9, 2012

Nemrut Dag & Alanya

This card, sent by Nihan, show a Unesco Tentative site, Alanya and a Unesco site, Nemrut Dag, both new in my Unesco collection.

Alanya situated in the eastern part of the Gulf of Antalya is 137 kms away from Antalya by the main highway. The peninsula of Alanya surrounded by city walls was named "Karakesion" during the Hellenistic period went under the hegomany of Romans and Byzantines, followed by the Seljuks. The present name of the town comes from Alaaddin Keykubat, who did great service to the development of the town. Inside the Alanya castle there exist a Seljuk cistern, a Byzantine church, the Keykubat Sultan Palace and the ruins of a Seljuk bath, completed with the traditional urban texture. The castle extends down to the sea and encloses a medieval dockyard that is guarded by a 33 meter high octagonal tower of red stone and brick. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1405/

© Keskin Color A. S.

Nemrut Dag is a 2,134 m (7,001 ft) high mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues are erected around what is assumed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BCE. In 1987, Mount Nemrut was made a World heritage site by UNESCO.
Nemrut comprises the Hellenistic mausoleum of Antiochus. In the first century BC, the Roman-Persian king Antiochus I of Commagene (a kingdom north of Syria and the Euphrates) ordered to build a grave and temples on this site. On two sides of the mountaintop terraces were set up for meters high statues of the gods and himself. The statues represent Apollo, Fortuna, Heracles and Zeus.

The heads of the statues have tumbled down in the course of years, and have been erected again on the place they fell. They are all about 2 meters high.

It is suspected that the grave of Antiochus himself is hidden under the mountaintop, beneath a heavy layer of debris. - http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/nemrutdag.html

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