Mt. Nemrut Circuit

I'd never been to Turkey outside of Istanbul, which I was quite taken with. But I've always heard of how many other wonderful sites are to be found in the rest of the country - and unlike the rest of the Middle Eastern countries I've explored, it's huge and almost all of it seems to be filled with interesting terrain. I was happy to take a trip to someplace unlike anyplace else I'd visited before - even the most varied and epic desert landscapes are still epic desert. This strip of the Anti-Taurus mountains wasn't.

With the assistance of an old hiking guide (whose business dropped off after the second Iraq War), we mapped a circuit of beautiful trails around a historic mountain, which became the Nemrut Region of the Abraham Path, one of my favorites.

I didn't seem to have gotten any pictures of the trek from Karadut up the the Mt. Nemrut summit, until this view from the top - looking down south at the lake formed by a dam on the Euphrates, over the old Roman roads that led up the mountain, and to the distinctive gap that led from the valley below Nemrut to the spreading Euphrates plain

Around the snowy summit...

Heading down from the summit

This place was great for the kind of time-worn, snaky paths - or dirt roads - I love to find

After an intensely steep descent down the mountain's slopes, we reached the lush lowlands near Arsemia, where the Commagene kings sat when they weren't ordering slaves up the mountain to carve elaborate tombs for them

At Arsemia, there isn't much in the way of castles you can visit, but this dungeon delved much deeper into the cliffs than I cared to go without a rope

And climbing up into the country hills between high mountains, through several quaint little Kurdish villages I neglected to get good photos of

Turning away from a wide dirt road, we began to follow a donkey path over the mountain - our guide told us, and the worn status of the path confirmed, that people still use it to travel between villages. From the top, we got my favorite view of Nemrut. Nearby this spot, we found hunting blinds used for partridge-trapping; later we got to see a captured partridge

Partly cloudy and mountains on mountains. What more do you want?

Soon it was time to descend from the ridge and follow a rough track down the valley seen ahead here

Lower elevation, more green - the opposite of Wadi Dana, back in Jordan

So many plentifully-stocked water sources were a sight for sore eyes. Even the non-desert portions of Israel, Palestine and Jordan aren't like this

Old mountain architecture is much more charming than the blocky houses of most of the rest of the Abraham Path

One last view of the valley of Karadut, below Nemrut...

And it's time to go

Bonus pictures from walking around Urfa, 2 hours south of Nemrut and, by local tradition, the birthplace of Abraham. They really love them some Abraham there. Everybody you meet seems to be named Ibrahim or Halil in his honor. There's a beautiful park/mosque complex around the birth cave, filled with holy carp and other attractions.

You're free to feed the sacred carp, but it's bad luck to catch them, much less grill one up for lunch