We are taking one hairpin turn after another on the mountain road. For the last 15 minutes, we feel like we are on an amusement park train, climbing up, rather than a car ride. In the darkness of the night, we move forward to get to the tomb of Antiochus I, King of Commagene.We start walking from where the driveway ends. We have thermoses in our bags, winter jackets, and some snacks even though it is the middle of summer. When I turn on my headlamp for the walk, which will take about half an hour, I see an ancient 2,000-year-old path paved with stones. Walking on this path in the darkness of the night takes you into a time tunnel. I could be a Commagenean, a Roman, or a Persian in the mountain's darkness. The only thing that distinguishes me from them is the clothes I am wearing and the technological tools I use. But I think they were probably as excited and curious as I was 2,000 years ago when they came to this enormous mausoleum. The Kahta's lights and villages shine in the darkness of the night from afar.<img src="https://images.aposto.com/2022/6/0/1658684061994.png" style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px; border-style: none; position: relative; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box;" width="550" ratio="0.80" fr-original-style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px;" fr-original-class="fr-draggable"><hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">After a while, the path ends, and I reach a terrace on top of the mountain. To my right is a flat area overlooking the mountains and the vast Mesopotamian lands behind it, similar to the stage where a temple used to stand. When I turn to the left, I freeze for a while before the giant statues of Nemrut appear in the twilight. I am greeted by a lion guarding the mountain, two eagles, Antiochus the King of Commagene, Commagene the god of fertility, Zeus the God of gods, Apollo, the god of wisdom, son of Zeus, and Heracles, another son of Zeus. Even the heads of the statues, separated from their bodies by earthquakes and natural causes, are the size of an average human being. Behind their torsos rises a 50-meter-high tumulus made of crushed stone. Inside this Tumulus is known to be the burial chamber of Antiochus I, King of Commagene. However, this burial chamber hasn't been reached until today. All the work done in the past had stopped. They have damaging risks to the Tumulus and the statues.<img src="https://images.aposto.com/2022/6/0/1658684089861.jpeg" style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px; border-style: none; position: relative; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box;" width="550" ratio="0.75" fr-original-style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px;" fr-original-class="fr-draggable"><hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">The strong wind blowing at 2,150 meters helps me get away from the impressive sculptures and the mystical atmosphere of the twilight. We are now at the end of the Taurus mountain range. After this, the fertile lands of Mesopotamia begin. While waiting for the sunrise in the freezing weather, I think about the Kingdom of Commagene. I am looking for the answer to the question of how a small kingdom sandwiched between the two superpowers of the period, the Persians and the Romans, could leave such a magnificent monument. The answer to my question is so simple: balance. Commagene is a kingdom built on a balance. In order not to be swallowed by these two superpowers, it becomes a cultural and commercial partner of both. With the neutrality policy created, it became the crossroads of the east and the west and prospered with trade. The supreme confusion experienced by the experts who first saw the statues in Nemrut was to encounter Greek gods in Persian clothes.On the other hand, to make his power unshakable, he wants to strengthen his god-king image. He sends reliefs of himself shaking hands with the gods all over the country and attributes sanctity to himself. When Antiochus I died in 34 BC, he had buried next to the Greek and Zoroastrian gods, whom he tried to unite, perhaps because of this sanctity, and even considered his relatives. Of course, as befits a god-king. First, a burial chamber had built for him on the mountain where the temple of the union of the gods was located. According to one theory, he had been cremated, and his ashes were placed in this room. Then, this burial chamber was covered with 30,000 cubic meters of broken stones of 150 meters in age and 50 meters in height, and a new summit had built on the mountain. Moreover, it is estimated that these stones had not obtained from the mountain but from somewhere else. How so many stones had moved up the 2,150-meter-high mountain about 2,000 years ago and what kind of human power was used is a mystery. The task of protecting the tomb is given to the giant god statues placed to the east and west of the tumulus. Thus, Antiochus I continues to unite east and west with his death. Every day the rising sun first greets the statues on the eastern terrace and then says goodbye to the statues on the western terrace as it sets.It's the coldest time of the night, and all we want is to reach the warming rays of the sun as soon as possible. But the view from the east terrace, with our backs to the giant statues, is so mesmerizing that we want to slow down the sunrise and prolong the moment. Now and then I look behind me. And the more the light increases, the more the majesty of the Tumulus and the statues are revealed. The horizon gradually turns from red to yellow, and finally, the night comes to an end.The first rays of light hit the mountain's summit and quickly descend. The sun bursts through the mountains as if in a hurry. The dilemma we all face is whether to watch the sunrise or to watch the light hit the mountain. We take photos not knowing where to turn and watch. As the sun rises, we get rid of the poisonous cold. It is as if we are coming back to life. Apart from the gods and Antiochus I, someone else is permanently on the mountain. When Theresa Goell, the American archaeologist who helped us meet them, passed away, her ashes were scattered in the air from the summit of the mountain by the villagers in the region. Antiochus I has a new neighbor in his eternal resting place.<img src="https://images.aposto.com/2022/6/0/1658684161059.jpeg" style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px; border-style: none; position: relative; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box;" width="550" ratio="0.88" fr-original-style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px;" fr-original-class="fr-draggable"><hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">With slow steps, we walk around the tumulus to the west terrace. The bodies of the statues here are more destroyed. However, some reliefs depicting Antiochus shaking hands with the gods are on display here. Luckily, the west terrace is also empty. The area, which hosts hundreds of people at some sunsets, is as if it was reserved for us. We agree to meet the gods and Antiochus I, the King of Commagene, on the west terrace at sunset one day in the future and start walking down. As I walk to the back of the group, I look back. I am in the shadow of the giant tumulus. I think that maybe this is how Antiochus I found the immortality that humans have been chasing for thousands of years.

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