Hierothesion Photo

Photographer’s Note

Nemrud Dağı (also known as Nemrut Dağ, Mount Nemrud, and/or Mount Nemrut) is a 2,150 meter high mountain near the Ankar mountains in Anatolia, southeastern Turkey. It dominates the whole region.

At the top of Nemrud Dağı, King Antiochus Theos of Commagene built his tomb-sanctuary along with huge statues (8-9 meters high) of himself and various Greek and Persian gods in 62 BC. There are 2 different terraces, both with 5 statues of Apollo, Fortuna, Zeus, Heracles, and Antiochus I Epiphanes King of Commagene.

The top of the mountain is artifical, composed of some dozens of millions of little stones and with a pyramid shape higher than 100 meters.

This tomb contains stone carvings of gods, such as the head of an eagle. The arrangement of such statues is known by the term "hierothesion".
This tomb was excavated in 1881 by Karl Sester, a German engineer.
Subsequent excavation have failed to reveal the tomb of Antiochus.

In 1987, Nemrut Dağı was made a World heritage site by UNESCO.

Partialy from Wikipedia

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That image was took at the sunrise, from the Western Terrace, looking on the heads of the statues and on the mountains that rounded the Nemrut.

*Scanned Image*

bantonbuju, Quentin, Amirsun, Gix, supereira, YavuzA, serdarhepgul, ozaydin, gaby, fayeulle, thaprem, fadingstar78, BiRiNARES has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

bantonbuju (48706) 2005-09-27 4:08

caio paolo, anatolia is a land of surprises, and one of the places where histoy is seen everywhere;
i like this dual-tone image, maybe i'd reverse the focus in order to have sharp foreground;
anyhow - very nice image and a very good note;
have a nice day, jerzy

Quentin (5278) 2005-09-27 4:12

Hi Paolo
Have you been on moon?! Your picture really looks like to be from
another world! These blue and red colours fit very good together.
Oh! I just see now that we can see sculptered faces
on the rocks! So it was on Mars!! Good artistic shot.
Regards
Quentin

barrufeto_77 (25829) 2005-09-27 4:24

Hi Paolo.

Amazing shot this. Surprising. The best for me is this close-up with the red-mountains behind. It gives us a strange feeling.

Ah, and the note is really well done!

Regards.

Amirsun (2114) 2005-09-27 4:31

Hi Paolo!
Roch and Rock, shadows and highlights! well seen and well composed. Tanks for posting.
Regards
Amir

Gix (3559) 2005-09-27 4:44

ciao Paolo,
che vista!
Ci sei salito a piedi o con la jeep?
Incredibile come tutti questi blocchi siano quasi accatastati alla rinfusa. E eccezionale lo scenario, quasi desertico da quel che vedo.
Lo scanner, cecondo me, ha inserito una dominante giallo/arancione visibile soprattutto nelle ombre.
Io non vedo i blu/verdi che dice Quentin, sono sempre più perplesso sulle tarature dei monitors...
Grazie dell'immagine spettacolare e delle note!
Giorgio

supereira (9576) 2005-09-27 5:27

Interesting shot.I like the composition and DOF.Great details.I like the colors,light,textures and sharpness.Well done!

jinju (14265) 2005-09-27 5:36

Very strange. Not your typical landscape. The light is nice and the composition too. The red in the back looks martian.

serdarhepgul (1712) 2005-09-27 8:17

Super panaroma..

feather (49868) 2005-09-27 9:46

What a strange place with all the broken statues. Unusual lighting too giving the scene this red colour.
Kath

quantabeh (5203) 2005-09-27 16:43

hi Paolo,
an excellent composition. Looks very superb from this angle, with the darker foreground and lighter background. Very nice special effects indeed.
Behrang

gaby (19793) 2005-09-28 1:38

Paolo bonjour - des couleurs très futuristes pour un paysage tout à fait irréel -
superbe vue
Merci
Gaby

fayeulle (26543) 2005-09-29 1:54

Cia Paolo
You shot like you paint, Paolo.It"s really fantastic. Astonnishing look and feel. Great job
JP

rbcy1974 (20744) 2005-09-29 15:22

HI Paolo,
Nice play of light and shadows,
the lighting on the distant mountains is excellent, and one can almost hear the wind blowing. Excellent show of an amazing site.
Regards
Daniel

BiRiNARES (477) 2006-03-26 17:10