the heads of the gods

I had some spare days in Turkey in between attending a conference and starting a holiday in the Caucasus, and whilst I had been to Cappadocia on a previous trip, it was so long ago (1986) that I couldn't really recall anything of it and so decided to go there again.  With the added advantage that they now run early morning hot air balloon trips over the area around Göreme.

So I spent an enjoyable few days hiking amongst the 'fairy chimneys' of the region as well as 45 minutes floating above it all in a balloon.

What most attracted me, however, was Nemrut Dağı down in the south of the country - a place I've wanted to visit since I first read about it over thirty years ago.  As it is quite remote, and my time was limited, I booked myself an expensive four-day tour, to include transport from Göreme and back to Istanbul as well as a nice hotel and guided visits to Nemrut Dağı and a few other places in the area.  But it wasn't to be, the Istanbul agent sending me a WhatsApp message the day before the planned departure to tell me they had cancelled the tour as I was the only participant.  In Göreme no-one was running tours there.  So all I could do was set off on my own with my fingers tightly crossed.

I took the bus from Göreme to Kayseri, from Kayseri to Gaziantep, and from Gaziantep to Adiyaman, where I had been led to believe I would find tour agents and other travellers with whom I could organise the last part of the trip.  All I found, however, was yet another modern, nearly deserted bus station on the far outskirts of the town with not another tourist nor any tour agents in sight.  So I wandered around the bus station looking as forlorn and lost as I possibly could, with the desired result that eventually someone approached and asked if he could help.  With the help of his internet access (google translate) I explained my predicament, he went and talked to the other drivers, and one of them phoned someone he knew ... and soon I was handed a phone to hear an English-speaking agent on the other end quoting me a price (considerably cheaper than the tour I'd already paid for) to provide what I wanted.  Wonderful!

So I took a local minibus to Nemrut where he met me, took me to check into a hotel and then later collected me for the trip I'd dreamt of for so many years.

Not straight there - we had first to visit Karakuş tumulus, Arsemia, the second century Roman Cendere Bridge and Yeni-Kale castle.  This is a relief from the little known Arsemia of Herakles and King Antiochus shaking hands.  The other sites were worth seeing and he had to time things right so that I would see the sunset from Nemrut Dağı (I'd opted for that rather than the 2am departure for the sunrise, given that I had just spent a night on buses).

So we drove to our final destination, and made the slow climb up the winding path to the location of the gods at some 2,200m above sea level.  I took many photos at this beautiful place, which despite the presence of a handful of Turkish tourists was still as remote and windswept as I had always imagined.

Well worth the difficult journey there and the 18-hour bus trip back to Istanbul!