5 historical sacred websites across the globe
Mount Nemrut, Turkey
The 2,134m high Mount Nemrut in south-eastern Turkey is home to an otherworldly Unesco World Heritage site that is referred to as “The Throne of the Gods”. On the summit is a non secular sanctuary and historical burial mound, courting to the first Century BCE, constructed by King Antiochus I of the Kingdom of Commagene.
Archaeologists imagine Mount Nemrut was a sacred web site for the individuals of Commagene, which is why King Antiochus I wished his tomb to be positioned there. Surrounding the mound are large statues of Greco-Persian gods, together with Zeus, Hercules and Apollo, and King Antiochus himself, together with lion and eagle guardians. Like Stonehenge in England or the moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the statues, which measure as much as 9m tall, are a feat of engineering that appear to defy the time interval after they have been constructed.
“Mount Nemrut is a sacred place that stands in a stark panorama,” mentioned Rainier. “It is stuffed with statues with the heads damaged off and scattered about. The rock facial constructions have been weathered with time, so it suggests in a metaphorical approach that mankind’s efforts to be immortal finally fade as nature takes the statues again to the Earth. It’s a solemn and moody place.”
Many travellers who come to this distant mountain in Central Anatolia time their go to for dawn, when the solar lights up the statues and the japanese terrace; nonetheless, sundown supplies a equally memorable, soulful expertise.
Sacred: In Search of Meaning by Chris Rainier is revealed by Earth Conscious Editions. For extra on Chris Rainier’s work, see culturalsanctuaries.org.
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