Nemrut Dag, an isolated peak near Kahta in modern Turkey, was where the princes of the Hellenistic state called Commagene were buried. The place might well have been forgotten were it not for the survival of a huge monument erected by one Antiochus I who ruled Commagene from 69 to 34 BC.
Monumental sculptures and fallen heads of portrait statues lie in front of the burial tumulus of Antiochus which rises to a height of some 150 ft (45 m) from the natural rock.
The fallen heads themselves are colossal and stand over 6 ft (2 m) tall. Several are thought to represent the ancestors of Antiochus. On his mother's side, Antiochus traced his heredity to the Seleucid heirs of Alexander the Great and on his father's side to the Achaemenid Persian rulers of Iran.
