History

Adiyaman used to be known as "Hisn-i Mansur" until the republican era. It hosted many civilizations throughout its history including the Hittites, Mittanis, Urartus, Assyrians, Meds, Persians, Alexander the Great and the Kommagene. Adiyaman lived the periods of the Seljuk Turks, Crusades and Mamelukes in the 11th, and those of the Anatolian Seljuks, Ilkhanite and Mamelukes in the 12th century. It was annexed by the Ottoman Empire in 1516 during the reign of Yavuz Sultan Selim. The area has ample pieces, structures and specimens coming from the Hellenistic era, Romans and the Byzantine together with those belonging to the Islamic - Turkish heritage. These assets obtained during the salvation work started in 1978 along with the Lower Euphrates Project are now placed in Adiyaman Museum. The museum exhibits pieces obtained from excavations carried out at various tumulus together with coins from the Roman and Seljuk times.

Kommagene Kingdom

Shortly after the disintegration of Alexander’s Empire, Kommagene emerged in the west of the Euphrates River as a buffer kingdom between the Persian and Roman Empires. The kingdom included current day provinces of Adiyaman, Gaziantep, Maraş, and Kilis and existed between 162 BCE and 72 ACE. The kingdom, whose capital was the city of Samasota, lived its golden age between 69 BCE and 36 ACE starting with the rein of King Antiochus I. Antiochus claimed blood ties to the Persian emperors from his father’s side and to Roman the emperors from his mother’s. The name Kommagene comes from the local dialect, which means “everybody’s kingdom”.

Antiochus’s biggest achievement was the construction of a temple and tumulus on Mt. Nemrut 7,500 feet above sea level, considered the 8th wonder of the world. From this site other significant monuments, including those at Arsemia (kingdom’s summer capital), burial sites at Fırlaz village and Karakuş, and the tumulus at Karadağ.

The discovery of Mt. Nemrut was by accident. In 18383 Helmut Von Moltke, who was assigned to the Taurus army of the Ottoman Empire came upon the statues during a field trip. He reported this the Prussian king; the rest is history. Systematic archeological study of the mountain started in 1938 with the digs conducted by Otto Puchstein and Karl Sester. But the mountain owes its worldwide reputation to two dedicated archeologists, the German Karl Dörner and the American Theresa Goel. (Ms. Goel’s ashes were strewn on top of the mountain after her death.)