Arsemeia in some ways was the capital of the Commagene kingdom, located way up on a mountain with a great view….
Shoot it even has a restaurant way up on that hill…
Yet another statue of Antiochus shaking the hand of a god or demi-god, in this case Herakles=Hercules. There is also a stand alone statue of the king himself…. being hugged here by Meltem….
Even higher up on the hill is the largest and longest single Greek inscription in the land…. and it overlooks the valley and the Commagene kingdom itself.
At the very top of the hill is a statue of Antiochus and Herakles, and oh yes… Meltem
But Antiochus the king of the Commagenes, was not satisfied with a few statues and inscription and cities. He wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, so he had tons of rock hauled up Mt. Nimrud to build him a tumulus, and in addition, he had statues of himself, and various gods and goddesses carved to surround the tumulus. And no has been allowed to dig into the tumulus so we don’t even know if the old boy is still in there. It’s time to go to Turkey’s version of Mt. Olympus.
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