Guarded by the Black Eagle. The Karakuş Tumulus in southeastern Turkey

About 10 km to the north of Kâhta, a 35m high mound of limestone rubble measuring some 110m in diameter overlooks the valleys of the Taurus mountains. The Karakuş Tumulus is a funerary monument built by Mithridates II of Commagene in 35-20 BC for members of his family. The tumulus is surrounded by groups of three about 9m high columns, topped by steles, reliefs and statues of a bull, lion and eagle. The eagle has given the site its name – Karakuş means black bird in Turkish. A Greek inscription indicates that the mound once contained a royal tomb, but research by Friedrich Karl Dörner in 1967 showed that the tomb was likely robbed in antiquity. Some of the blocks that made up the grave chamber were presumably used to build the nearby Cendere bridge over the Euphrates by the Romans during the second century AD.