Original subtitles

Narrator: high in the mountains Of southeast turkey

Stands a skyscraping monument,

Mount nemrut.

Gigantic decapitated sculptures Surround a vast summit.

Their size is really enormous.

Narrator: But what is the purpose of

This bizarre mega structure?

And why is it built at such Dizzying heights?

Now, investigators decode Ancient inscriptions

And hunt for clues to mount Nemrut's destruction.

We know that The west terrace was

In a complete state of Demolishment.

Narrator: they use innovative Geophysical analysis

To solve the mysteries of The mountain.

Nothing like this existed Before this time.

Narrator: to piece together This ancient riddle,

We blow apart gigantic 30-foot-tall statues

And digitally excavate A tomb that

Has remained hidden For millennia.

We crack the mystery of Long-lost gods

And reconstruct the summit to Its former glory

To unearth the identity of A mysterious mountain king.

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Mount nemrut, turkey,

A towering mountaintop Grazing the skies.

7,000 feet high, Its summit

Looms above the taurus Mountain range.

What is unusual about this Monument is its location on

Top of one of the highest Mountains of this region.

Narrator: On the summit of mount nemrut

Is an unusual monument, The key to an ancient culture.

Fragments of gigantic statues

Are scattered across The terraces, and the strangely

Shaped mountain peak Is covered in rubble.

2,000 years ago, throned figures Tower 30 feet tall,

With mighty stone eagles and Lions sitting by their side.

At their feet,

Carved reliefs leave clues To the mountain's purpose.

Over 7,000 foot above sea level,

Covering over six acres,

What is this unique site?

Michael blomer has been Working in this region

For two decades.

He wants to find out more

About this enigmatic monument.

Two terraces flank the summit, Facing east and west.

On the eastern terrace,

There's an unusual wide Step platform.

Michael examines it for clues To its purpose.

Narrator: an altar is evidence That this is a religious site.

Could other parts of The monument reveal

More about the obscure Religion worshipped here?

A line of ruined statues Stands on the terrace.

Their heads lie on

The ground below their Decapitated stone bodies.

Each head is as tall as A human

And is carved In incredible detail.

Michael: it's a male head With a full beard.

It's a paternal figure.

The mouth is slightly opened.

He's looking upwards, And you see

How his forehead Is contracted.

Narrator: michael thinks The figures are meant to depict

Specific people,

But who?

He heads 800 feet around

The mountain's summit to The western terrace.

It's a mirror of the first, But there's one

Crucial difference.

Hidden at the back Of the west terrace,

Michael discovers huge slabs.

Long inscriptions are carved Onto the stones in

Ancient greek.

As michael deciphers The text, it reveals

Something surprising.

Each statue has not one, But a combination of names.

Narrator: zeus is a greek god, But here, he is also

Given an equivalent persian Name from the ancient

Zoroastrian religion.

This pattern is repeated With almost all

The other statues On the mountaintop.

The last god is artagnes, A persian god,

Who is, at the same time,

Heracles and aries.

Narrator: the names suggest That these gods are

Unlike any others in The ancient world.

They are both greek And persian.

Michael believes This site is

The origin of A groundbreaking new religion.

Who orders the construction Of mount nemrut

And begins This religious cult?

The statues hold A clue -- among the gods,

Michael finds A mysterious figure,

One without any Divine features.

This is the head of

A young man -- It belongs to the statue

At the very left sitting, Placed next to the gods.

Narrator: michael tracks down The name of

The man who sits alongside The gods.

This part of the inscription Is not well preserved,

But we can still decipher The name.

It's a-n-t-I-o-ch-o-s.

Antiochos ["Antiochus"].

Narrator: Who is antiochus?

Michael decodes more of The inscription

And reveals that antiochus Describes himself as a god.

But he's not a greek Or a persian deity.

Who is this Mysterious character?

Strewn at the feet of The gigantic statues

Is a series of intricately Carved stone reliefs,

Each 10 feet tall.

They all show antiochus Shaking hands

With the gods Whose statues sit above.

Only the last relief Is different.

It shows a lion cloaked in A constellation of 19 stars.

A sky chart -- the oldest Preserved horoscope in

The world.

Could these reliefs reveal Who antiochus is

And why he sits among the gods At mount nemrut?

The majestic reliefs Once stood proud on

The terraces, but today,

They're so fragile, they must be Protected behind lock and key.

Michael has exclusive access To examine the carvings.

What can the sky chart reveal About antiochus?

The way these stars are Arranged tell us

That they represent The constellation of the lion.

So this constellation Gives us a precise date,

Which is the seventh Of july, 62 b.C.

Narrator: the enormous lion Horoscope reveals

The day of Antiochus's coronation.

He is the king of The commagene kingdom.

In the sixth century b.C.,

The persian empire Expands westward,

Conquering eastern turkey.

The persian king and his Mighty army of highly

Trained soldiers sweep through The region around

Mount nemrut.

But 200 years later, The greek leader,

Alexander the great, appears

On the scene and takes The land from the persians.

When alexander dies, His empire is split among

His generals.

Commagene emerges as An independent kingdom.

Commagene stretches from the Taurus mountains in the west

To the euphrates river In the east,

Covering an area the size of Puerto rico.

When king antiochus becomes Ruler of the commagene kingdom,

He builds mount nemrut at its Heart to glorify his new cult.

But why does he choose to Surround the summit

With statues That seem to honor

The two former rulers Of the region?

On the west terrace of Mountain nemrut,

Michael finds two rows Of stele,

Large carved stone slabs.

One set of stele depict Figures in traditional

Greek dress.

This set of reliefs depict

The maternal lineage Of antiochus.

Narrator: On his mother's side,

Antiochus traces his ancestry Back to the legendary greek

King, alexander the great.

But not all the carvings Look the same.

Michael examines The second row of stele.

The people depicted In these reliefs look

Markedly different.

They are dressed In persian garments.

Narrator: Michael thinks that antiochus

Uses the persian figures to

Claim he is also a descendant Of darius the great,

Who rules the persian empire In its golden age.

Antiochus wants to be seen as

The heir of the two Powerful empires.

Mount nemrut helps Antiochus assert his place

On the political World stage.

He builds this imposing Monument and solidifies

His new cult,

But is mount nemrut More than

A symbol of antiochus's might?

What can the gigantic mound At the center of mount nemrut

Reveal about another Hidden purpose for this

Mountaintop monument?

And how does the commagene Workforce build it?

Narrator: At the heart of turkey's

Taurus mountain range

Lies the colossal Mount nemrut.

Here on its summit, 2,000 years ago,

King antiochus builds a huge Monument to tower over

His kingdom.

He erects an enormous statue Of himself alongside

New greek persian gods to Establish his supremacy.

But michael believes These ruins hide clues that

Suggest this mountaintop Complex is built

For another purpose.

He scans the inscriptions On the western terrace.

This part of the inscription, Antiochus says

That this monument Is his sacred tomb.

He mentions That it has been

Built close to The heavenly thrones.

It's supposed to be Indestructible, eternal.

This monument is The house of his body.

Narrator: If mount nemrut

Is the tomb Of the mountain king,

Where is his body?

The key may lie Hidden inside the peak.

It's a gigantic pile of rubble Called a tumulus.

Smaller stones at the top Allow it to soar over 160 feet

Into the sky,

While huge boulders form A solid base 500 feet wide.

Some archaeologists believe That hidden in this colossal

Mound are the remains of King antiochus himself.

Is this man-made mountain The king's final resting place?

Michael is on A mission to find out.

He believes the rulers In this part of the world

Used tumuli the same way The egyptians used pyramids.

Narrator: 2,500 years earlier, The egyptian pharaoh

Khufu builds

The great pyramid of giza as His final resting place.

He designs an intricate system Of tunnels deep inside

The pyramid that lead to A secure funerary chamber.

If, like the pharaohs, Antiochus is buried within

The skyscraping mound At nemrut,

What does his tomb look like?

To find out, Michael heads to sofraz,

An open commagene Burial site 50 miles from

The mountain.

Michael: this tumulus is much Smaller than the royal tumuli of

Mount nemrut, and it's also

Constructed differently, So it mainly consists of soil.

Narrator: michael looks for An entrance into the tumulus.

Michael: originally, the Entrance would have been hidden.

Narrator: On the southern slope,

There is a deep Vertical shaft.

Michael heads underground To explore the tomb.

The walls are really very Neatly carved.

The surface is very smooth.

I have to say this certainly Is among the finest

Pieces of masonry that we can Find in commagene.

Narrator: It is likely that the tomb

Within mount nemrut is Equally refined.

Finally, the narrow Corridor opens

Out into a huge vaulted room.

This is the burial chamber,

And inside the chamber we have Two plain sarcophagi.

Narrator: Just like the tombs in egypt,

The commagene rulers are Buried in huge stone caskets.

As king, it's likely antiochus's Would have been ornate

Antiochus would have been Buried in a chamber like this,

But probably much larger And certainly more

Lavishly decorated.

Narrator: Despite its beautiful masonry,

The chamber itself is bare.

Michael thinks that The commagene would

Have buried their dead with Valuable grave goods.

He hunts for evidence of what Happens to the objects

And finds two holes In the ceiling.

This is one of the two Robber channels

Through which the tomb Raiders entered this

Burial chamber.

Narrator: the tumulus at sofraz Has been robbed.

Has the same thing happened to Antiochus's tomb?

Back at mount nemrut, Michael hunts for evidence of

A break-in.

He finds that parts of

The tumulus look like They've been disturbed.

Narrator: Archaeologists believe

That on top of mount nemrut,

Antiochus's builders construct A burial chamber,

Place the king inside, And seal the entrance.

The massive tumulus on top Protects it.

If robbers try to tunnel to The center,

The loose rubble collapses, Burying the intruders alive.

Despite being a beacon For grave robbers,

No one has ever broken into Antiochus's tumulus or seen

The legendary tomb inside.

It is a mystery still waiting To be explored.

How does antiochus find The stone

To build his impregnable Burial mound?

And how does he transport it To the top of the mountain?

Narrator: on a mountain range In southeast turkey

Two millennia ago, King antiochus builds

A soaring burial complex 7,000 feet high.

Archaeologists believe that At the center lies a lavish

Tomb, hidden under a massive Mound of stone and rubble.

The monument is visible from Across antiochus's kingdom,

A seemingly impossible feat Of engineering.

The ancient builders Make the site from

The finest stone Fit for a king.

They build the immense Altar and each of

The five huge reliefs From great slabs of

Fine-grained sandstone.

They carve the gigantic Statues from

Over 600 tons of Pure white limestone,

And they construct The tumulus from

140,000 cubic yards of Limestone fragments.

It takes a staggering 1,500 tons of stone

To complete the site.

Why does antiochus choose This remote mountaintop,

And how do his builders do it?

Erhan akca wants to uncover Where the ancient workers

Find the material to build On this barren mountaintop.

He inspects the landscape Surrounding the terraces.

Just below The western terrace,

Erhan finds Important evidence.

Narrator: Erhan measures the length of

The straight lines that are Cut into the rock.

Narrator: On the terrace,

He compares this measurement With a block used to

Build one of the towering Statues of the gods.

Narrator: the quarry cut lines And the stones match exactly.

Erhan's investigations Reveal that

The commagene workers source

Their materials from The closest place

To the terrace as possible.

This clever plan means they Can build faster and bigger.

But the reliefs on The terraces

Of mount nemrut are made Of sandstone,

And there are no sandstone Quarries close to the summit.

To find out where The sandstone originates,

Erhan x-rays the carved

Slabs to detect Their chemical composition.

The x-ray reveals a unique Chemical fingerprint

So the stone can be matched With the quarry it comes from.

Narrator: erhan hunts For any signs of

Quarrying in the landscape North of mount nemrut.

Narrator: He compares the sandstone here

To the stone on Mount nemrut.

Narrator: To confirm that this is where

The stone from the carvings Is quarried,

Erhan x-rays the outcrop.

Its chemical fingerprint is An exact match to

The rock on the summit Of mount nemrut.

Narrator: erhan thinks he knows Why the commagene venture

Farther away from the summit In search of sandstone.

Narrator: Sandstone rarely fractures,

Making it a perfect material

For the reliefs on The terraces.

King antiochus wants The intricate details

Of his monument to survive For millennia.

The commagene builders Scour the landscape to

Find the best rock for Their carvings and statues.

But where does all the stone For the crowning glory

Of mount nemrut,

The 160-foot-tall tumulus, Come from?

There aren't enough quarries Around the mountain to produce

The hundreds of tons Of stone needed

For the central burial mound.

Erhan surveys the landscape Surrounding mount nemrut.

He notices Something intriguing.

Narrator: The top of mount nemrut

Is unusually flat.

Erhan believes this is Evidence that the ancient

Builders embark on An extraordinary feat

Of engineering to modify This mountain summit.

The engineers first quarry The mountain's craggy peak.

They remove tons of Limestone rock

To flatten And smooth the summit.

They use the largest blocks of

Limestone as the walls Of the monument

And the towering statues.

Then, On the flattened summit,

They build the tomb and pile Huge rubble blocks to form

A masonry core 110 feet tall.

They cover this core with 50 feet of limestone gravel,

Remaking mount nemrut's Summit in the name

Of antiochus.

The ingenious builders take Advantage of

All the resources of The mountain,

But one massive Challenge remains --

Assembling The 30-foot-tall statues.

How do the ancient engineers Stack these stone giants?

Can clues hidden inside The statues reveal

How the talented builders keep Them from toppling?

And why do later Explorers find

The giant stone heads At the statues' feet?

Narrator: mount nemrut, high in The mountains of turkey.

King antiochus builds this Sprawling site as a cult center

And tomb in the north of The ancient commagene kingdom.

Imposing statues flank The central tumulus.

How do the ambitious engineers Build these giants?

Michael: look at All those blocks

That tumbled down From the statues.

Their size is really enormous.

Narrator: The workers must assemble

The heavy pieces of stone into Statues of gods and the king,

Each as tall as five men.

It must have taken Lots of efforts

To lift those blocks To create the statues.

Narrator: seven layers of stone Make up each statue.

Each layer is over 3 feet thick

With slabs that interlock like A colossal puzzle.

To make these giant figures,

The ancient engineers roughly Chisel each piece into shape

On the ground.

Then they carefully assemble Them into towering stacks.

Finally, they chisel The fine features,

Transforming the rock piles Into gods and kings.

But each piece weighs Around two tons.

How do The ancient builders assemble

These towering statues?

Michael inspects the remains Of the statues.

Their damaged Bodies could reveal more

Ancient building secrets.

He peers inside the remains of

The statue of zeus and spots Something unusual.

They constructed the statue Around a hollow space

That they later filled With rubble.

Narrator: the gigantic statues Have large holes

At their core.

The holes are a clever Design feature,

Reducing the number of slabs

The workers must haul up The mountain,

And a rubble center Helps to

Hold the interlocking stones In place.

But each individual block Is still

Too heavy For any human to lift.

How do antiochus's workers Assemble the colossal slabs?

Michael examines A fallen stone.

Michael: if you look closely, You will discover

That each block Has at least two,

But most of them actually four, Little holes.

Here you can see one -- Here on those blocks above.

Narrator: he believes That these small holes

Are the key to understanding

How antiochus builds The statues.

They were used for

Lifting these blocks With a crane.

Narrator: At the top of the mountain,

The builders construct A towering crane from wood

And ropes.

They attach a pair of hinged Tongs from their hoist

That slot into the holes in The massive stone blocks.

This way, The masons can easily lift

Two-ton blocks 30 feet Off the ground

And lower them carefully Into position.

Then they fill The central core with rubble.

This acts like A central spine to

Stabilize the colossal 30-foot-tall statues.

Cranes like these are used Across the ancient world.

The greeks invent The first prototype

In the 6th century b.C.,

And they use it to build The parthenon.

This engineering breakthrough Paved the way for supersized

Monuments that showcase

The immense power of the rulers Of the ancient world.

The holes in the statues Also give michael an insight

Into how the commagene Workforce is organized.

We see this headband here, The diadem of the king, with

These thunderbolts,

And we see that the hole has Been carved in the temple

And thereby destroying The ornament.

This tells us that the head Was finished when it was

Still standing on the ground,

And then the head has been Lifted and put on top of

The statue.

Narrator: engineering brilliance Ensures these magnificent

Stone structures tower over The king's tomb.

But if their engineering Is solid,

Why are the statues in such A state of ruin today?

What makes antiochus And his gods lose their heads?

Narrator: mount nemrut,

A vast burial complex in Southeast turkey.

This is a site of ancient Engineering splendor.

2,000 years ago, Master builders used

Towering cranes

And over 1,500 tons of stone to Build this unique monument.

Why is it in ruins today?

When investigators rediscover Nemrut in the 1880s,

It is a devastated site.

Rubble from the tumulus Covers the terraces,

Hiding clues To the monument's purpose.

The heads Of the statues rolled

Down the mountain Are partly buried

And are scarred with deep Cracks and surface damage.

Only one statue Remains intact --

The goddess commagene has Escaped decapitation.

But in the 1960s, After holding fast for

2,000 years,

Her torso crumbles, And her head topples.

This shrine is designed To last for eternity.

How does it come to be So utterly destroyed?

Erhan investigates

If the harsh climate on Mount nemrut could be to blame.

The mountain experiences Hot summers

Of 104 degrees fahrenheit And cold winters,

When temperatures plunge To 14 degrees.

For half the year, the statues At the peak sit covered in snow.

To analyze the damage This causes,

Erhan examines King antiochus's head.

Narrator: when archaeologists Discover mount nemrut,

They find the head of antiochus Partly buried in soil.

This has a profound effect On his facial features.

Narrator: erhan believes Constant exposure

Over thousands of years

Has a disastrous effect On the statues.

Water seeps into the tiny Cracks in the surface.

When the temperature drops, The water freezes and expands,

Widening the cracks.

Now water can penetrate Deeper into the stone

And the freeze-thaw Cycle repeats

Until it shatters the rock.

The cracks in the statues Grow over millennia.

The thinnest part of The statues is the neck.

It's a natural, Weak spot for growing cracks

To shear the rock.

But the total collapse of The statues

Suggests there's more than Just weathering at play.

Yasemin didem aktas Investigates this mystery.

She hopes that by Understanding past damage to

The statues, she'll be able

To better protect them Against future harm.

Weathering wouldn't be enough To create

The structural damage that We are seeing on site.

Narrator: Yasemin believes there may be

A bigger force to blame.

She analyzes a geophysical map Of turkey,

Which highlights The seismic fault lines

Running across the country.

Yasemin examines the area Surrounding mount nemrut.

Yasemin: here is mount nemrut -- Just it's north of

The ataturk dam -- as you can See, it's very, very close

To the east anatolian Fault line,

Making it very vulnerable To earthquakes.

Narrator: mount nemrut sits Three miles from the fault line,

Between two colliding Tectonic plates.

As the two plates Grind past each other,

They trigger frequent Earthquakes along the fault,

Sending tremors through Mount nemrut.

Do earthquakes Decapitate the statues?

To solve the mystery,

Yasemin develops a brand New bespoke simulation using

The measurements of a typical Statue at mount nemrut.

She models how The three-foot blocks that

Make up the gigantic figures React to seismic activity.

She starts with an earthquake That measures

A powerful 7.2 On the richter scale.

Yasemin: the head moves around A little bit,

But we do not observe A lot of openings

In the remaining stone blocks.

Narrator: the gigantic Statues can survive

A one-off earthquake,

But yasemin wants to see What intensity

Of earthquake would cause The heads to fall.

She amplifies the force of The earthquake by three,

Simulating the effect of Multiple successive tremors.

We really started to see damage That are pretty comparable to

What we are observing In the west terrace.

The stone blocks are Scattered all over the place,

And it's pretty Dramatic, really.

Narrator: Over the course of 2,000 years,

Devastating earthquakes caused The heads to topple off

The statues and their bodies To collapse.

The king builds his tomb on Mount nemrut so that

His memory and religion will Persist long after his death.

But despite his efforts, The statues collapse.

What do mount nemrut's Ruins reveal about

Antiochus's legacy?

Can evidence on a little-known Third terrace

Shed light on what happens After his death?

Narrator: on one of the tallest Peaks in southeast turkey,

King antiochus Builds his temple tomb.

His aim is to be seen And remembered for eternity.

How does antiochus try to Ensure his legacy lives on?

Michael decodes The inscriptions on the gigantic

Statues of the gods At mount nemrut.

He talks about the religious Festivals in his honor,

But also to honor the gods Assembled here and all gods.

Narrator: these instructions Tell worshippers how

To practice antiochus's New religion.

They list the days to Celebrate in his honor.

Antiochus's birthday And the day of his coronation

Get a special mention.

Michael: from the inscription, We also know what kinds of

Activities were expected to Take place.

So, like, sacrifices, Music was played by

Musicians, and also The people who attended,

They could expect to be fed.

Narrator: do the commagene People follow

Antiochus's instructions?

On the hunt for clues,

Michael heads to A strange third

Terrace on the edge of The mountain.

This terrace is A poor imitation

Of the others at Mount nemrut.

It's much smaller.

Instead of gigantic statues And a limestone platform,

It only has rough sculptures And uneven ground.

We see this long row of Sandstone slabs,

Which were supposed To be reliefs.

However, as you can clearly See, they have never

Been finished.

Narrator: michael thinks That this is because

The king dies before The construction is complete.

He was buried immediately,

And building is abandoned.

Do the people of commagene Ever return to the mountain?

If people perform sacrifices, You have residue.

If they come here for feasting, For drinking,

You would see pottery Or other kinds of material

Left behind.

But, in fact, no archaeological Traces of actual use

Have been discovered.

Narrator: Why do the commagene people

Abandoned antiochus's Eternal site of worship?

At another burial mound 15 miles from mount nemrut,

Michael hunts for clues.

Here, antiochus's son And successor,

Mithridates, builds A tumulus for his mother,

Sisters, and niece.

Michael examines a relief At the burial site.

Michael: There certainly is a link to

The tomb of antiochus On mount nemrut,

But there is also a very Significant difference.

Here, we have two human beings Shaking hands,

While on mount nemrut,

Antiochus was Shaking hands with the gods.

Narrator: mithridates is shaking Hands with his sister,

But unlike his father At nemrut,

He is not depicted like a god.

After antiochus, The king is simply a king.

He's not divine or equal To the gods.

And antiochus's religion, Which he tries to

Immortalize with his enormous Statues on mount nemrut,

Also fades.

The commagene people Disown his new gods

And instead continue to Practice their old

Local beliefs.

Michael: after his death,

There are no monuments for The gods that we see here

On nemrut, so this really Dies out after his death.

Narrator: but the magnificent Monument on mount nemrut

Ensures antiochus is never Entirely forgotten.

Michael: The king created something

Extraordinary, a monument That still today

Stupefies people.

King antiochus builds A sprawling burial complex

On top of Mount nemrut.

He erects massive sculptures Of radical new gods

And places himself alongside Them as their equal.

Antiochus's body is laid to Rest under a rubble colossus,

Where it still Lies undisturbed

In his mountain tomb.

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