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00:00I'm traveling the world, exploring secrets and wonders.
00:09This is really tight.
00:11So I asked my friends here if they could get me access off the beaten track.
00:16And I 100% definitely got what I asked for.
00:21An adventure by land and sea to the most fascinating places.
00:26It is just extraordinary.
00:30Where I've been given special access to significant and surprising treasures.
00:35Some of the most remarkable artworks to survive from antiquity.
00:40Buried in ancient sites, extraordinary buildings and glorious works of art.
00:47I'm in search of the treasures that help to explain the story of us.
00:52Journey with me to discover how the past shapes our lives today.
00:59This time I'm exploring the delights of central and eastern Turkey.
01:04Throughout history, the land all around me has been a bridge for civilizations.
01:09And a place where diverse culture has flourished too.
01:14From the magical cave-like homes of Cappadocia.
01:18That is Indiana Jones right there.
01:20To a giant mausoleum on top of the world.
01:24And recently discovered mosaics forgotten for over 1700 years.
01:43My journey will take me hundreds of miles across central and eastern Turkey.
01:49This treasure isn't on, it's within the natural wonder all around me.
01:56The awesome, breathtaking, otherworldly landscape of Cappadocia.
02:07This extraordinary terrain of eerie towers and cones are the eroded ashfields of ancient volcanoes.
02:19Natural forces have created geological wonders here.
02:22And humanity's dynamic relationship with this extraordinary environment has created man-made wonders too.
02:35For thousands of years, locals and visitors have been inspired to carve homes into the soft rock.
02:43Cool in summer, warm in winter, people have lived here right up to modern times.
02:54Zelve, inhabited until the 1950s, was once one of the largest man-made cave communities in Cappadocia.
03:05Omer Sekban lived here until he was 13.
03:10So this is your house here? Can we go in?
03:13Yes.
03:14OK, thank you.
03:19Over time, rock falls and collapsing rooms made it just too dangerous to live here.
03:28And Zelve's family eventually relocated to a new village close by.
03:34So there's a fire here?
03:40Yeah.
03:43Really good.
03:45How many people lived here when you were living here?
04:01It sounds like very happy memories here.
04:04Next door is where Omer and his family slept.
04:10You obviously really enjoy coming back here. So what is the one thing that you most miss?
04:35The Turkish word for aura also translates as soul or spirit.
04:41This special atmosphere attracted pilgrims to Cappadocia,
04:45seeking out a kind of biblical wilderness to test and nourish their spirits.
04:52Christianity came early to Cappadocia.
04:55Just months after Jesus' death, his followers gathered in Jerusalem
05:00and there were people from this region among them who then brought his word back here.
05:06As time went on, more and more religious enthusiasts flocked to Cappadocia,
05:12tempted by this strange, otherworldly landscape
05:16where they felt they could be close to God in the wilderness.
05:21And as time went on, populations didn't just occupy man-made cave towns above the surface,
05:29they also burrowed underground.
05:35I've come to the subterranean city of Kaymakli.
05:43I have to say it's slightly traumatic coming back here
05:46I have to say it's slightly traumatic coming back here
05:49because I first came here in 1986 when there were no lights anywhere at all
05:54and I got stuck and lost and it gave me claustrophobia.
06:01So I'm quite... I'm being quite brave coming back
06:06but this time I've arranged to meet a guide down inside.
06:11Hello.
06:13Hi.
06:14Oh God, hi.
06:16Nice to see you.
06:17Nice to see you. I'm actually quite glad. It's a friendly face.
06:21Where are we? What are we standing in now?
06:23We're in a teeny tiny miniature church complete with an altar stone cut out of rock.
06:29Yes.
06:30Aha.
06:31And any other clues here?
06:33A plus sign.
06:34Let's see.
06:35Like a Greek cross.
06:36Yeah, you can see that, can't you?
06:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:39Gosh.
06:40So what's... I mean, the fact... So you've got a church down here.
06:43Why is that? Do you think... I mean, are people using this just to live regularly?
06:50It may have been used as a storehouse at times of peace.
06:55Yes.
06:56And it probably served as a place of refuge during times of war when survival was at stake.
07:08For Christians fleeing persecution in the medieval period, this place was a safe haven,
07:14and clues as to how it was defended can still be found within the warren of corridors.
07:21So it looks like a millstone, but is it?
07:24It does look like a millstone, but the original purpose of it would be rolling it across this tunnel...
07:32Ah, yes.
07:33...to seal the tunnel shut.
07:35Aha.
07:36That is clever. I mean, that is Indiana Jones right there, though, isn't it?
07:40It is very Indiana Jones-esque, for sure.
07:46With stone doors carved in situ, around 100 tunnels and eight floors,
07:52this underground city is a feat of engineering,
07:56cleverly designed to accommodate thousands of people for long periods of time.
08:02So what are we looking at?
08:04We have here a ventilation shaft.
08:08Oh.
08:10That is such good news.
08:12Put your hand out, feel the fresh air coming out of it.
08:15Oh, my God, that's great news.
08:17So that goes up to the surface, does it?
08:19It does, to the ground level, both, and to deep down.
08:23They had to provide fresh air in, have that circulate through these tunnels...
08:28OK.
08:29...so that they could continue staying alive.
08:32Yes, yes. OK.
08:34I'm just going to hang out here for a second.
08:36I can feel it's cold and lovely on my face.
08:39It does feel good, doesn't it?
08:41It does feel really good. It feels really good.
08:43But I'm sure you want to take me deeper in, do you?
08:46I do. I sure do.
08:47OK, great.
08:49Off we go, then.
08:54This city included a communal kitchen,
08:57for farm animals, and even a cemetery.
09:01And imagine, when you come down here and spend time here,
09:04does it make you feel close to the people who created this?
09:08Are you impressed by them?
09:10Impressed? I'm astounded.
09:12I mean, the extensiveness of the carving,
09:16the labour that must have went into it,
09:19over who knows how many centuries,
09:21is just mind-blowing.
09:23Yeah.
09:24Never ceases to amaze me.
09:28In the 10th century,
09:30church building and decoration rose to a whole new level.
09:38Nearby is Tokali,
09:40one of the most beautiful rock-cut churches in all of Cappadocia.
09:46Every single inch of this church
09:48has been carved out of the natural rock.
09:51It was begun around 915 and then it was extended
09:5550 years later.
09:59These are some of the most exquisite frescoes
10:02to survive from the medieval world.
10:06This is simply the best that money can buy.
10:09Artists were brought in from Constantinople,
10:12what's now Istanbul.
10:14And if you just look at the material that they're using,
10:17so this beautiful, beautiful blue,
10:19this is lapis lazuli,
10:21which has come all the way from Afghanistan,
10:23and there's gold on some of the halos.
10:25So it's a real statement church,
10:28but it's also a church with a bit of a secret
10:32that's only just been discovered.
10:36It's a clue to this church's intriguingly humble origins.
10:45So, up until a couple of years ago,
10:47people thought that this was just a slightly grubby,
10:50skanky, kind of inexplicable storeroom,
10:53but there's been a brilliant bit of scholarly detective work,
10:57and it's been revealed that almost certainly
11:00this was a hermit's cell,
11:02so this was where a solitary hermit lived.
11:05And the reason that the church is here at all
11:08is that it was built around his space,
11:11so, you know, this was the kind of sacred,
11:13beating heart of the place,
11:15and this is one of the clues.
11:18Now, this is called a hagioscope,
11:20and what that means is a kind of saintly porthole,
11:24so the hermit who was living here
11:26would have been able to look out straight at the Virgin Mary
11:30and adored her.
11:35So, the whole church was constructed
11:39to enhance and protect the hermit's piety.
11:43Creating an ultimate religious experience.
11:55Cappadocia is a treasure because of the special relationship
11:59it's allowed its inhabitants to enjoy with the natural world
12:03that continues to this day.
12:07Everywhere you go, there's evidence of the hermit's
12:11Everywhere you go, there's evidence of the brilliantly ingenious ways
12:16that people have worked with this remarkable landscape around them.
12:20I mean, these homes in these fairy chimneys are just fantastic.
12:27And it's Cappadocia's spiritual dimension too.
12:31Hermits, Christians, mystics and Muslims
12:34flocked here from far and wide,
12:36captivated by its ethereal wilderness,
12:39which nourished soul and spirit.
12:47My next treasure takes me back over 10,000 years
12:52and to the Neolithic site of Karahan Tepe.
12:59What's being discovered here is changing what we know
13:02about the story of human life on Earth.
13:07Only unearthed in 2019,
13:10no-one's been allowed to film with this access before.
13:16What you're looking at here
13:18is one of the earliest settlements ever discovered.
13:22It's 11,400 years old,
13:25so just stop and think about that for a minute.
13:29Karahan Tepe is 7,000 years older
13:33than the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
13:37And so far, only 1% has been excavated,
13:41so this is genuinely the most extraordinary treasure trove of a place.
13:51At a time when most people were hunter-gatherers,
13:54this place was expertly carved out from the bedrock,
13:57with different rooms for different purposes,
14:00indicating the sophistication of the society that built it.
14:05Obviously, this place is still being decoded,
14:09but we think it was created as some kind of giant assembly area.
14:14So far, 200 of these massive columns have been discovered.
14:18A lot of them are decorated with wild animals,
14:21things like leopards and wild boar.
14:24I don't know if you can make this one out,
14:27so this is a human figure.
14:29There's something important happening here,
14:32probably some kind of ritual,
14:35but what's been discovered just over there
14:39is completely unique and was completely unexpected.
14:4911 monumental columns inside an enclosure.
14:55You've got to ask, what is going on here?
14:59There's a kind of channel that allowed water to come in,
15:03so maybe this was for some kind of rite of passage,
15:07and that central rock there is in the shape of a leopard,
15:11and the whole thing is overlooked by this beautiful bearded face.
15:15It's a man who's got a snake for a body.
15:20We can only begin to imagine the rituals that went on here,
15:25but what this does tell us is that the people who lived here
15:30were turning the landscape into something human.
15:36The evidence of ritual suggests
15:39this 11,000-year-old community had a belief system,
15:43but their home here didn't endure.
15:47People lived here for 1,500 years,
15:51and then they abandoned the place,
15:54but before they left, they did something extraordinary.
15:58They covered over the site as if they were putting a person to bed
16:03and laying him or her to rest in a deep sleep.
16:08Now, the incredible thing about this site is that it's not alone.
16:13There are probably ten others like it in this region,
16:17and there's another excavation I've just got to take you to.
16:21I'm heading around 30 miles down the road
16:24to one of the most famous Neolithic sites,
16:27Göbekli Tepe, Potbellid Hill in Turkish.
16:32I really do love this place.
16:34I first came here when the excavations were quite new
16:38and it was completely mind-blowing,
16:41and now there's a whole lot more that's been discovered.
16:48Dating to 9,600 BCE,
16:51this site, 200 years older than Karahan Tepe,
16:55is also full of depictions of Neolithic people.
16:59Göbekli Tepe is also full of depictions of animals,
17:04and what's amazing is that these images adorn columns
17:08from the earliest monumental temples in the world.
17:13We think hunter-gatherers congregated here
17:16for some kind of religious experience,
17:19and that's not all.
17:22As excavations are carrying on,
17:24there's more and more evidence being discovered
17:27of what used to appear.
17:29So there are these huge stone tools
17:31for grinding wild grain and seeds and nuts,
17:35and massive cisterns for collecting rainwater.
17:41These discoveries are completely rewriting history.
17:46Our understanding of the world was that
17:49when we invented agriculture,
17:52we settled down in villages and then towns.
17:55We also invented religion
17:57so that we had a kind of accepted code of behaviour.
18:01But this is being built when we're still hunter-gatherers,
18:05so what this tells us is that we're choosing
18:08to come together in huge ceremonial spaces
18:12to enjoy a kind of ecstatic shared experience.
18:20New Neolithic sites are being discovered all over this area,
18:24and some of these tepehs may be part of a constellation
18:28of at least 12 within a 60-mile radius.
18:32The Tash Tepeh Lash.
18:35Incredibly, these aren't just being unearthed in the countryside,
18:39but in people's homes.
18:42I've just been tipped off that while digging a new cellar,
18:45a local man has discovered something extraordinary.
18:49Hello, hello. Are you Aziz Bey?
18:53Thank you. Fantastic, thank you.
18:56So all round here in the village,
18:59there are lots of excavations being discovered.
19:10Yeah, yeah, I'll mine the hole in the floor, thank you.
19:15Oh, it's down here.
19:19OK, so it's a kind of carved mural from the Neolithic.
19:28It's basically like a storyboard.
19:32So there's a huge bull who's attacking a man.
19:37He's sort of like in a real position of distress.
19:40I think he's hunting him.
19:42There's a leopard who's also...
19:45..just about to attack this poor man who's hugging his stomach.
19:50Might be clutching his penis.
19:52That seems to be a bit of a theme round here.
19:55So this is a whole story being told. I mean, that's amazing.
19:59So these are people who aren't just representing themselves.
20:03They're kind of writing a narrative into the stone.
20:07They're telling the story of what mattered to them,
20:11what their fears were of their lives.
20:14I'm sure this is probably kind of totemic,
20:16so this is the worst thing that can happen to you, basically,
20:19that you get attacked and eaten by wild animals.
20:22And they're probably trying to prevent that happening
20:25by imagining it and making it real in stone.
20:29This is incredible.
20:34The new museum at Shanliurfa houses a stunning find,
20:39one of the most significant statues in the world.
20:45Urfa Man.
20:48This sculpture was discovered by chance during construction work
20:53and it's also 11,000 years old,
20:57which makes it the earliest known
21:00life-like, life-size sculpture of a human being that exists.
21:06And you know how you feel?
21:08You really want to get to know and to meet
21:11and to try to understand those women and men
21:14who created those incredible structures.
21:17Well, here is one of them.
21:20His eyes are made of obsidian,
21:22which is a kind of black volcanic glass,
21:25and he seems to be naked, apart from this V-shaped necklace,
21:29and it looks as though he's grasping at his penis.
21:33So this is a wonderful representation of male power.
21:40And just think what worlds those eyes would have stared out at,
21:46a prehistoric landscape packed with treasures and wonders.
21:57My next treasure, close to the Neolithic Tepes,
22:01is an ancient city with special significance
22:04for three world religions.
22:07Shanli Urfa.
22:09Originally simply Urfa.
22:12Urfa is known as the City of Prophets
22:16and it's believed to be the biblical city of Ur
22:20as well as the birthplace of Abraham or Ibrahim,
22:24the prophet revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
22:29In fact, it's been a sacred city for thousands of years,
22:34from across continents.
22:40There are other candidates for the location of Ur,
22:43but recent scholarship and regional tradition point to Urfa.
22:50According to that tradition, Abraham's mother was pregnant
22:54when the king at the time, King Nimrod,
22:57was given a terrible prophecy by his stargazers
23:00that any child would destroy his kingdom.
23:04Paranoid, Nimrod ordered all pregnant women to be brought to his palace.
23:10If they birthed a girl child, they were allowed to go free,
23:14but if it was a boy, then that child was killed.
23:17So to guard against this terrible fate,
23:20Abraham's mother hid in a cave and birthed her son safely.
23:27The cave Abraham is said to have been born in around 4,000 years ago
23:32is now in this mosque complex.
23:37Tens of thousands of Muslims come to pray here every year.
23:43It's believed Abraham sheltered in the cave for seven years
23:47before moving to his father's home.
23:51An example of humanity imbuing the Earth with a spiritual dimension.
24:00At the time, polytheism, the worship of many gods, was universal,
24:06but Abraham believed something that was radically new.
24:11He said there was only one God
24:15and only that one God should be worshipped.
24:18And he didn't keep his ideas to himself.
24:21He tore down idols and he challenged those around him with his arguments.
24:26And so he's come to be acknowledged as one of the world's first monotheists.
24:35We're told that King Nimrod was so outraged by what he saw as Abraham's blasphemy
24:43that he threw him from a huge height towards a great fire.
24:48But God intervened.
24:51He turned the flames into pool water and the logs into fish.
24:56And so Abraham was saved.
25:02Today, both the pool and the carp in it are considered sacred.
25:11These must be the most cosseted fish in the world
25:15because you're not allowed to catch them.
25:18If you do, then you'll become blind.
25:21And loads of people come here to feed them.
25:29For centuries, Eartha's connection to Abraham
25:32attracted pilgrims, travellers and traders from far and wide.
25:37The perfect environment for the city's bustling, vibrant bazaar to thrive.
25:43Somewhere, craftsmen still use the fruits of the earth
25:47to create beautiful, everyday things.
25:54Hi.
25:57Can I have one?
26:00OK, fantastic, thank you.
26:05You sure?
26:15Yeah, hiya.
26:17Oh, thank you.
26:19Fantastic.
26:21That's brilliant.
26:22I've just been given a beautiful bit of fresh bread.
26:25I'm just kind of having some tomato paste.
26:28This is isot?
26:29Yeah.
26:30Aha.
26:31So isot is this really traditional thing that they produce here.
26:34It's a kind of special paste made of dried peppers.
26:38It's really hot.
26:42Oh my God, that is so delicious.
26:46Lots of people aren't eating at the moment because it's Ramadan here.
26:49So this is a special bread that's made for Ramadan.
26:52So people are all coming here to the market,
26:54partly to kind of buy spices to make the meal.
26:57At the end of the day.
26:59So I feel a tiny bit guilty.
27:01But it's also very tasty.
27:05But there's also something a little unexpected here.
27:11Pigeons are recorded in Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets
27:15and Egyptian hieroglyphs,
27:17and today they're prized in this ancient city for breeding and racing.
27:23There's a reason there are so many of these pigeons in the bazaar,
27:26because this is a city that is completely obsessed with them.
27:31Pigeons have been used here since antiquity for messages and for food
27:36and for their poo, for the guano, which is a fantastic fertiliser.
27:40But here in Urfa, they breed them, they orphan them.
27:44There are guys who say they sell their fridge and their wife's gold jewellery
27:48in order to buy the perfect pigeon,
27:50and they pass hands for huge, huge amounts of money,
27:53sometimes the same amount as a car.
27:55So it's a kind of fantastic, quirky characteristic of this place,
28:00but it also goes right the way back to the ancient world.
28:08The abundance in Urfa's bazaar
28:10comes from its location in the Fertile Crescent,
28:14a cradle of civilisation,
28:16nourished by the waters of the River Euphrates.
28:19It's one of the places where settled farming was first established.
28:27This river is such a life-giver.
28:30It created such a land of plenty,
28:33it came to be thought of as sacred.
28:36And in the Bible, we hear that the Euphrates
28:40started in the Garden of Eden itself.
28:47The Euphrates is the longest river in Western Asia,
28:52a waterway steeped in history, legend and sacred stories,
28:57just like the neighbouring city of Urfa.
29:00Urfa's rich and eclectic history
29:04is written in its food, in its monuments,
29:08in its extraordinary generosity and hospitality,
29:13and in its beautiful landscapes,
29:16which, at times like this, feels not just like a treasure,
29:20but a bit like paradise.
29:35In antiquity, this part of the Euphrates was strategically vital.
29:41A last stop in the Greco-Roman world
29:44before crossing into lands controlled by foreign powers.
29:51We're told that Alexander the Great
29:54built a pontoon bridge across the river
29:57and then his general and successor, Seleucus,
30:00founded a city on the banks.
30:03A city that came to be known as Zoghma.
30:07Under the Roman Empire,
30:09Zoghma became one of the largest and most important cities
30:13of the eastern frontier.
30:15A flourishing commercial, military and religious centre,
30:19it lay abandoned for around 1,700 years.
30:25Hello!
30:26An archaeological team are now on their way
30:29Hello!
30:30An archaeological team are now uncovering Zoghma's secrets.
30:35And they've invited me to stay overnight at their dig house.
30:47Breakfast with archaeologists is often a treat.
30:52And the view here isn't bad either.
30:56From up here, you can really get an understanding
31:00of the story of Zoghma.
31:02So that down there is a massive dam
31:04that they started to construct in the late 1990s.
31:07And as builders were working,
31:09they began to uncover little clues
31:12that there was a settlement here.
31:14But, of course, there was an issue
31:16because this whole area was due to be flooded,
31:19so archaeologists desperately came in
31:22to try to rescue the ancient settlement
31:25that was here on this hill.
31:30Experts had long known about an ancient settlement here,
31:34but these pressured excavations
31:36before the dam's completion in the year 2000
31:40revealed just how incredible it was.
31:44This is the level that the waters reached in the year 2000,
31:49but there's still 30% of the city left below.
31:53So you can probably just about make it out.
31:56There's a street here running to the north.
31:59Those are pillars at the edges of homes.
32:02And then under the water, beautiful mosaics were discovered.
32:1245 mosaics were recovered before the waters rose.
32:19Along with sections of the site spared the flood,
32:22they give us an idea of Zugma in its heyday.
32:29This city was home to up to 40,000 people,
32:33and so far archaeologists have discovered a temple
32:37and the agora, or marketplace,
32:40as well as these fabulously wealthy homes.
32:49Experts are using the latest AR technology
32:52to better understand the site.
32:55So you've got the mosaic down there,
32:57which I can see anywhere in the pillars, the columns.
33:00A dog friend joined me for the experience.
33:03You see, this is fantastic.
33:05So you can see the wall paintings as they would have been.
33:08I can actually go around 360 degrees.
33:12It's fantastic.
33:18I'm really excited because a house,
33:21which archaeologists have been excavating since 2007,
33:25is finally due to open to the public.
33:28Lead excavator, Professor Kutalmish Gurkhai,
33:32is giving me a special preview.
33:35Good morning. Welcome.
33:39This is extraordinary.
33:43I have to say, I'm not often lost for words,
33:46but this is an incredible place.
33:49And you found this all just like this in situ?
33:51Yeah, just like this in situ.
33:53This is the central courtyard of the house,
33:56covered with this beautiful mosaic.
33:59So Oceanus is obviously the kind of spirit of the ocean,
34:02but also of all the waters.
34:04And, you know, we're right here,
34:06the waters bringing so much to this settlement.
34:08Yes, yes.
34:10So what's the date of this one?
34:12Middle of the 2nd century,
34:15some of the veterans lived in these houses.
34:17They got married with the local ladies, rich ladies,
34:20and the ladies got, some of them at least, Roman citizenship.
34:24Ah, it's amazing.
34:26So this is the outside. Can we actually go into the house?
34:29Sure, sure, of course.
34:36Amazing.
34:38The beauty just continues.
34:41This is remarkable.
34:43It's so exquisite,
34:45and actually so interesting to see so many images of women here.
34:49Yes, yes.
34:51Since we are in the women's quarters, reserved for the lady of the house,
34:55therefore we have these depictions,
34:57probably Didymaea or Penelope.
35:00Yeah, just basically kind of fabulous, strong women.
35:03Yes.
35:05It's like the mosaics are sending out messages.
35:07Yes, of course.
35:09They speak, I would say,
35:11because they indicate the intellectual background of the house owner,
35:16because they choose the specific scenes
35:18from the novella or, you know, Greek mythology or theatre plays.
35:22It's really interesting to think of the people,
35:24the men and women who lived here,
35:26who were living really in the height of luxury in a successful city.
35:32Ishil Ishikli Kaya is also working on the site.
35:37Hi. Hi, hello.
35:39What? I mean, this is beautiful.
35:41I know that these are the muses, aren't they?
35:43Yeah, and that's why this house has been named the House of the Muses.
35:47So beautiful.
35:49What are you doing? You're kind of analysing them?
35:52I'm documenting the different colours
35:54and the geometric patterns for stylistic comparison.
35:57This room is a dining hall,
35:59so the muses would welcome the guests.
36:02It's a starting point for the discussions
36:05that they will carry out during the evening.
36:08They almost look like oil paintings, these.
36:11It is, and actually mosaics are called paintings in stone.
36:14And the colours, oh, my God, they're beautiful.
36:18Is it local material that's used?
36:20That's mainly local material from the Euphrates.
36:23How appropriate, and how cool, they're all women.
36:27It's good, isn't it?
36:31In the third century, this whole city was abandoned.
36:36A lot of the doors were found with locks on them,
36:39as if people had stored away their personal possessions
36:42and hoped or expected to come back, but that wouldn't happen.
36:47And I just wonder
36:50if these incredible little bits of graffiti here on the wall
36:55are telling us about the beginning of a time of trouble.
36:58So here you've got a camel with a man sitting underneath him
37:03with a kind of thick woolen coat on, and this might be his name.
37:07There's writing Besson above him.
37:10But then look up there, so that's a phallus,
37:13which was a kind of, basically a good luck symbol,
37:16as if it was trying to protect them.
37:18This is a horseman from the east.
37:21He's got a huge sword and he's attacking.
37:24And then here there's a massive phallus saying,
37:27get lost, you know, leave us alone.
37:30So it's an enigmatic secret message
37:33that somebody from the ancient past was putting on this wall
37:37that we can now read.
37:44The fabulous artistry of this place gives us a unique window
37:48onto the social worlds of the women and men
37:51who lived on the frontier of the Roman Empire.
37:55Sigma is a unique and extraordinary treasure,
38:00partly because of its amazing story of salvation
38:04and its exquisite mosaics,
38:07but also because, for me, I spend my life looking for history,
38:12and this is a place where history looks back at all of us.
38:18My final treasure is over 2,000 metres high
38:23on one of the tallest peaks
38:25in the eastern Taurus mountain range, Mount Nemrut.
38:31This is the ancient processional way
38:33that was built over 2,000 years ago,
38:35and it's been quite a climb to get to the top, but worth it,
38:39because I think, I think I'm just about to make it in time
38:43The sacred monuments on the summit of this mountain
38:46bear witness to the extraordinary ambition and vision of one man,
38:51King Antiochus I of Comagene.
38:57Up here, you are king of men, king of gods, king of the world.
39:04Comagene, founded in the 2nd century BCE
39:07after the break-up of Alexander the Great's empire,
39:11was a small but wealthy kingdom.
39:18This is King Antiochus.
39:21Now, he was a really skilful ruler,
39:24but he was also a man of few words.
39:28This is King Antiochus.
39:31Now, he was a really skilful ruler,
39:34and he actually spent most of his time
39:36playing off the superpowers of the day,
39:39Rome and Parthia, which was an ancient kingdom
39:43that, at its height, stretched from here,
39:45from the northern Euphrates,
39:47right the way up to Afghanistan and Pakistan,
39:50and he wanted everybody to remember
39:53what a great job he was doing,
39:55and he called this very lovely creature here,
39:59this is Tyche,
40:01and she's a personification of divine good fortune.
40:08Antiochus chose this peak as a location for his tomb,
40:12accompanied by nine-metre-tall statues of gods and goddesses.
40:17Over the centuries, earthquakes have shaken the heads from the bodies.
40:25It's a pretty monumental location
40:28to choose for your mausoleum, isn't it?
40:31And the scale of these statues is just awesome,
40:36but it's also really fascinating
40:39because they are the most brilliant mix
40:42of Greek and Eastern influences.
40:49Antiochus repeatedly claimed
40:52to be of Persian and Hellenistic descent,
40:55and the design of the monuments shows his desire
40:58to promote a blended East-meets-West culture.
41:03This one is Zeus Oromazdes,
41:06so that's Zeus, the Greek king of the gods,
41:09combined with a Persian deity called Oromazdes,
41:12and if you look at him, you know, he's got this fabulous Greek beard,
41:17but also this really typical Eastern diadem
41:21with a huge, beaded thunderbolt right there at the top.
41:27But Mount Nemrut could be hiding a great secret.
41:32Of course, in some ways, this is all just decoration
41:36because we haven't actually discovered Antiochus' tomb yet.
41:40His burial is almost certainly right inside the mountain there,
41:45underneath this kind of natural pyramid.
41:51But the exact location of Antiochus' burial remains a mystery.
41:58And the wonders continue on the western side of the mountain.
42:10So, on the back of the thrones,
42:12on both the eastern and the western terraces,
42:14there are 237 lines of ancient Greek,
42:18with Antiochus telling the world what matters to him.
42:21It's fantastic for me to see this,
42:23because it's the first time I've been this close.
42:26As you might expect, it starts with a lot of pomp and circumstance,
42:30and he says, I am King Antiochus, the great king,
42:34the god, the righteous one, the manifest deity,
42:37a friend of the Greeks and the Romans alike.
42:40But then it's actually really touching, because he sort of...
42:43I don't know, he kind of turns very human, and he says,
42:46I have met great expectations,
42:48I have triumphed over peril and challenges,
42:51I have made myself the master of hopeless situations,
42:55and I have been blessed with a long and fruitful life.
43:02Antiochus wanted his mausoleum to last for all time.
43:072,000 years so far isn't bad.
43:11Now, I might be in one of the most beautiful places on Earth,
43:16but I'm just about to enter something some would call functional.
43:20But this shed holds something totally extraordinary.
43:25So in here there's a beautiful piece of sculpture
43:28that's been rescued from the side of the mountain,
43:31and I'm unbelievably lucky to get access to have a look at it.
43:36Oh, this is just incredible.
43:39What you're looking at here is the world's oldest known horoscope.
43:45As you can see, it's really fragile.
43:47It was out on the side of the mountain,
43:49but it's been brought in here for conservation.
43:52And it is an extraordinary thing, sending us all kinds of messages.
43:57So up there you've got the planet,
43:59so that's Mercury, Jupiter and Mars,
44:02with the other stars ranged on the body of this lion,
44:06who's got a moon round his neck.
44:09And the alignment of these stars is giving us a date,
44:13and that date is likely the 7th of July, 62 BCE,
44:18which we are almost certain was the coronation date of King Antiochus.
44:26So it's just an extraordinary thing,
44:30so it's just an extraordinary thing in historical terms.
44:35It really matters in terms of the human experience,
44:40and it's also just beautiful.
44:47In 72 CE, around 100 years after Antiochus' death,
44:52the kingdom of Commagene finally lost its independence
44:56and was absorbed into the Roman Empire.
44:59The grand monuments on Mount Nemrut were abandoned.
45:07Mount Nemrut is a treasure and an audacious wonder,
45:11partly because of the sheer scale of its monuments,
45:15but also because of the scale of the ambition of a man
45:19who wanted to create a civilisation for east and for west
45:24and that drew its inspiration from all points of the compass.
45:41This journey through Turkey has brought me close to nature
45:45in profound ways,
45:48from rock-cut cities of Cappadocia to sacred caves,
45:53to majestic men of the mountain,
45:56to tesserae used to create mosaics.
45:59It's reminded me that for thousands of years
46:02we've used the treasures of the earth
46:05to create enduring and truly wonderful things.