Nemrut and Antep Whirlwind

This last week was spring break, but with Adam leaving Turkey in just 16 days (I know, that seems really soon to me too), we opted to stay in Turkey and see some things that we just have not made it to in the area yet.

One of those things was Mount Nemrut. If you want to read up on the history of this UNESCO World heritage site you can go here, or here, or here.  The last link has the most impressive pictures of the monument.

This is what Nemrut looked like for us: cold, windy, and snow covered.

The little snow gnomes peaking out.

Me next to the gnomes for scale.

Adam and I on the hike down.

For the record, I would not suggest that anyone try going to Nemrut in April.  It's just too early and the wind is bitterly cold on the top of the mountain.  If you do plan on going early in the season (April, May and the early part of June), for god's sake, take appropriate foot wear with you!  As we were only on an over night trip from home, neither Adam nor I had the best mountain trekking shoes with us.  He had running shoes that did not keep the water out, and I had cowboy boots that had no, absolutely NO, tread and leaked.  At least we had thought to bring winter jackets with us.

Here is what the mountain crew was clearing as we got near the top.  We ended up hiking over a snow drift just to get to the road that leads to the visitor's center.  That was about a 2 KM hike, and then it was another steep climb over snow and slick rocks to the heads.

Don't tell me Turkey doesn't get snow.  It just doesn't get snow in places where you can ski.

 This was one of the cleared sections of the road.  I thought this was a pretty impressive snow drift.

After we left Nemrut, we followed some brown signs to this place.  In Turkey, brown signs are archeological or historical sites of some sort.  Some are good, and some are a bust.  You never know unless you go, but, typically, you will see one sign and then drive and drive, hoping to see another sign, and you'll think you have past it, just when it pops up out of no where.

So if you are touring in Turkey, just keep going.  You'll get there even if it feels a bit like you've gone the totally wrong direction somewhere along the way.

A king chilling with Hercules.  Can you guess who is who?

We've decided that we need to start packing paper and crayons so that we can do rubbings of some of the things we see.  Like at this place, there was a tomb entrance that had beautiful Greek (?) inscriptions that would have been cool to have and then frame.  Why, oh why, don't we think of these things BEFORE we go?

Adam chilling with Hercules.

 All in all, it was a great few days away from home.  The food in Antep is killer.  That's one of the reasons we went to Antep again at all-- the food is just so good you want to go back again and again. 

I also wanted a pair of shoes.  They make really dope leather shoes and a girl can't have enough shoes.  Also, Adam wanted to find a raki glass to take home with him.  You know, as part of his "drinking vessels from around the world" collection.