Turkey’s famous ‘kings statues’ go to museum

ISTANBUL – The famous ‘kings statues’ on Nemrut Mountain in EastTurkey will most likely be transferred to a museum. In their place, replicas will be erected on the mountain. The move to a museum is intended to protect the statues from further erosion by the extreme weather conditions in the area. This story appears in several Turkish media.

There has been an ongoing discussion about the preservation of the statues, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture, many plans were proposed but none of them was suitable; only by putting them in a museum could they be saved. Archaeologists are sceptical, and state that the statues have survived for two thousand years and there is no reason to assume they won’t survive for another two thousand years.

There is still time to go and see the statues in their original location, on the mortuary hill of (it is thought) King Antiochus Theos, who lived in the late pre-Christian era.  The museum, which is proposed to be located in the nearby town of Kahta, first needs to be built. That will take about three to five years.