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Mesmerizing Nemrut statues ‘buried and frozen’ under snow
Mesmerizing Nemrut statues ‘buried and frozen’ under snow
A group of mountaineers who climbed Turkey’s majestic Mt. Nemrut have struggled to find the ancient statues at the UNESCO World Heritage site due to heavy snow in freezing temperatures. Click through for the story in photos...
Mehmet Küçükkelepçe, Turkish Mountaineering Federation’s representative in the southeastern Adıyaman province, completed the climb to the 2,206-meter summit this week.
According to local media reports published on Jan. 2, the mountaineers averted three avalanches during the trip and were surprised to find that several ancient statues near the summit were “frozen” and buried under snow as the temperature dropped to -22 Celsius degrees.
Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, one of the mountaineers, was slightly injured during the trip but the group returned without any serious incident.
“The snow was as deep as four meters and visibility near the summit was shorter than two meters due to the blizzard. We couldn’t see the statues properly,” Küçükkelepçe said.
Nemrut, located in Adıyaman’s Kahta district, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987. It attracts tourists from around the world with its 50-meter-high and 150-meter-wide temple tombs.
In 2018, more than 50,000 tourists visited the mountaintop site, which is famous for its stunning sunrises and sunsets.
The site was also in the list of many foreign travellers. Most recently, a group of South Korean bloggers along with Korean tourism company executives visited it.
The South Korean group, which came to the city as part of an Adıyaman Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism initiative, had a chance to experience stunning sunrises and sunsets on the mount and to take plenty of photos.
The group has been visiting the city for two days, Mustafa Ekinci, the provincial head of the Culture and Tourism Ministry told state-run Anadolu Agency. “Every blogger has hundreds of thousands of followers. They will build a bridge of heart between Turkey and South Korea,” Ekinci said.
“Through this project, the relations between the two countries will further improve and it will contribute to the country’s economy.”
Nemrut, located in Adiyaman’s Kahta district, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. It attracts tourists from around the world with its 50-meter-high and 150-meter-wide temple tombs.
Some 45,000 tourists, including 14,000 foreigners, have visited the site in the first seven months of 2018, according to an earlier interview Ekinci gave to Anadolu Agency.
Adıyaman has been the final leg of the Korean tourists’ Turkey trip. They also visited the southern Antakya, southeastern Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep provinces.
Kim Eun-ji, South Korean blogger told Anadolu Agency that he was impressed by the sunrise on Mt. Nemrut.
“I will come to Turkey one more time. I liked Turkey so much,” he said.
Click through for more photos from the mountaineers' latest trip...
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