These are photos taken at Nemrut Dag in Turkey. Nemrut Dag was built by a king named Antiochus I who lived from 64 to 38 B.C. He brought peace to his region by creating good relations with the Romans and Parthians and celebrated by placing himself, or at least the statue of himself, with the great god-kings of the past. He might be buried under the large man-made mound behind the statues.

In the early morning, it was windy and very cold on top of the mountain, but Bob and I were well prepared with our windbreakers, gloves, and head covers. Good thing, because we even had some rain pass through after most of the tourists left. We had to leave our hotel at 0300 to make the 1 1/2 hour drive to beat the sunrise, but we were glad to get out of the hot hotel room and up to the crisp mountain air. It was too dark to see the scenery on the way up, and we took a more scenic, alternate route down (think hairpin turns and a steep road). We had a second chance to enjoy the scenery when we went back for the sunset.