Karakuş is a burial mound in the Kahta district, raised by the Commagene king Mithridates II for his mother Isias. Other women of the royal house were buried here afterwards, which is why it is also known as the monument tomb of the women.
The mound measures about 110 metres across. It stood 30 metres high when it was built and stands about 20 today. Six columns were set around it and four are still up.
Each surviving column carries something different. The one facing south is topped by an eagle — karakuş in Turkish, the black bird that gave the mound the name it goes by — and rises about 2.5 metres. To the northeast there is a column with nothing on it and, beside it, one carrying a bull whose head is gone. The single column to the northwest holds a tablet carved with Mithridates II and his sister Laodike; a lion that once stood on a column here lies on the ground, its column fallen.
The damage has a history of its own. After Rome annexed the kingdom of Commagene the mound and its burial chambers were broken into, and the walled hill was quarried: its stones, weighing tons, went into building the Cendere Bridge.
Karakuş lies inside the Nemrut Dağı National Park and has been designated its entrance.
Getting there
- Access
- Twenty kilometres north of Kahta, reached by vehicle.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Adıyaman as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 4.7 °C in January to 31.1 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (137 mm) and lightest in July (2 mm). Long-term means for 1963-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
