We've recently returned from a fantastic trip to Mt Nemrut. Most of the advice available in travel guides or on-line covers the approach to the mountain from the West or South. However if, like us, you're travelling from the East (i.e. Mardin or Diyarbakir) there's not a lot of advice available.

If you have your own transport, there are 2 options open to you. Firstly, the long drive around the southern side of the Ataturk Baraj, i.e. Diyarbakir to Siverek then south west towards Sanliurfa before heading north west on the other side of the mountain to Adiyaman and Kahta.

The much more direct route which we went for is to head north west from Siverek towards Firat Iskelesi , though it is signposted pretty clearly to 'feribot' once you're in Siverek. Distance wise, it's probably only about 50km to Nemrut on this route but, of course, there's the small matter of crossing the dam. We weren't able to find any up to date information about the ferry service on-line so this was a bit of a leap of faith and trusting the small dotted line on our map.

Once in Siverek the ferry times were published on signs (every 2 hours from 0930-1530, and there are earlier and later ones as well). However, as we approached the pier it became clear that this is one place in Turkey where the feribot timetable is largely pointless. The queue of traffic stretched well up the hill. We sauntered down to look at the boat as it approached and were slightly disturbed to see that it could hold a maximum of about 22 cars. Given that most of the vehicles in front of us were minibuses (or coaches or even lorries) it was clear that we were going to be waiting for a while. We were told 1-2 hours so guessed 3. In the end it was 4. When we eventually got onto the boat there were scores of men on hand to direct us into perhaps the smallest parking space that our car has ever occupied. This was, of course, an immensely amusing process for everyone involved.

To their credit, the ferry guys weren't waiting for the boat to fill up on the other side before returning to pick up more passengers: one or two boats came back almost empty. And although we could have easily driven around the water in 4 hours, we actually quite enjoyed sitting back, having a picnic and reveling in a very authentic Turkish scene. We seemed to be the only foreigners in the queue and therefore mercilessly deployed our blonde toddlers to aide bonding with the locals. We quickly struck up a roaring business snapping family pictures of the Turkish holiday-makers from the South East on their way to visit friends and family on the other side of the water. Now we have to decipher the email addresses they gave us and work out how to get the photos to the right recipients.

Facilities at the pier are pretty limited (a small grocery, smaller tea garden and a little stand selling all of your favourite Kurdish tunes). So try to get there early, come prepared with provisions, a sense of humour and inexhaustable supplies of patience and your trip to Nemrut will be far more rewarding than another few hours in the car. Happy sailing.

I purchased a tour from Adana (Incirlik Air Base) for $120. We departed on a 5 hour bus ride to get to "Hotel Nemrut," a dive of a hotel. It was all-inclusive with meals, all terrible, and I'm not even a picky eater (if you take this tour, bring food).
They wake us up at 2:00 AM in order to depart to the mountain before the sunrise. Another 45 minute bus ride, a brief speech from our guide on the history of Nemrut, then off to hike the 10 minutes or so up to the statues and location to watch the sunrise. It was the end of May and we were warned it was freezing cold even into July, but I would have been comfortable without a jacket, we were lucky I guess.
I was really impressed with the view during the sunrise, and it wasn't so crowded that you couldn't take pictures and wander around the statues (they are roped off now though, so you can't get within 3 feet of them).
After an hour, our guide took us to the other side of this summit to see smaller versions of the same gods. Apparently the creators wanted the sun to rise and set on them.
Finally we hiked down to the bus and continued with the tour that stopped in many other interesting locations, a roman bridge, some king's burial by a natural cave, and K-Town. We didn't even stop at some of the really great looking castle ruins that could be seen along the way.
Overall great trip, a must see - and if you are at Incirlik Air Base - the ITT office is a good way to see it.

I wanted so much to see the Mount Nemrut that I based all my trip to turkey to that area.
The place is just incredible, on the top of the highest mountain at 2000 meter high. It is always cold there because of the wind, so take a very warm jacket and a big scarf and maybe a blanket as well.
If you want to visit the mount nemrut independently you must be advised that it is far from anyplace! The closest village is 1 hour drive, and to get to this village where there are 3 hotel (in Karadut, where I stayed at the Karadut Pensyon) you need 1 hour taxi from Kahta, which can be quite expensive. I don't want to calculate how much money I had to pay to arrive there, consider that if you have your own car you will save a lot. I'm happy I did arrived to see it, but I am also glad I don't have to do such a mini-odissey again to reach it. I didn't wanted to buy an organized tour by an agency, but just to give you an idea how much it is to get the service by your self:
Bus to reach Adiyaman, averagely less than 10 liras from a nearby city (Antep, Urfa, Diyarbakir...).
Bus to Kahta, 1-2 liras
Taxi to Karadut, around 30 liras
1 night at the pensyon 20 liras (single)
a person to take you to the mount 30-35 liras
entrance to the museum 2,50 liras (this is very cheap).
In the village of Karadut there is no public phone, just a mosque and a food shop. But the country is very beautiful and the people live very traditionally.

Because of time reason we want to choose the way to Mt.Nemrut from Malatya. There is a very good tourism office where they speak English well and organize a 2-day trip, also adviced by Lonely Planet. The trip costs 50 YTL/person, incl.transport, dinner, breakfast and accommodation. E-mail for futher info: -----------