Nemrut Dag Squared (Nemrut Dag Part 1)

When we got near to Lake Van in Eastern Turkey we started reading about the volcano that caused the lake to form.
The present Nemrut Dag mountain (2950m) was 1500m taller, and about 6000 years ago exploded creating the lake and a huge crater inside the volcano.
There are now several crater lakes and a whole microclimate in the crater and interestingly for crazy cyclists there’s a 13km road that takes you all the way to the rim, climbing about 1000m from the main road.


Despite the warnings that the road was closed because of snow, we decided to have a go at camping on the rim. It was a bit hairy getting up to there and we did have to carry our bikes and bags up the final 100m to get to the actual rim because of landslides and a huge icey slope blocking the way. Once we were there it was definitely worth it.

We even attempted to get down to the crater although there was really too much snow to make the journey safe enough to do on our bikes, as we discovered later.
We now head off to another Nemrut Dag, about 500km West, with a pyramid on the top and loads of carved heads…hence the ‘Nemrut Dag Squared’ title

Here’s a slideshow:



If you want more information there is a route profile here: Route Profile