Adıyaman, Turkey —

Mount Nemrut rises more than 2,000 meters over Adıyaman province, its slopes fading from olive groves into bare rock. From a distance, it looks like any other peak in the eastern Taurus range — until the colossal heads come into view.

They sit in a solemn line near the summit: great stone faces, their features softened by centuries of earthquakes, frost and sun. Far below, goats pick their way through dry grass while the wind blows across the landscape.

It’s hard to know what’s more surprising: encountering these giant heads near the summit of one of southeast Turkey’s tallest mountains, or the fact that anyone believed these would last forever. But that was King Antiochus’s dream — to build a mountain where he could sit among deities, his power carved in stone and

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