Nemrut (volcano) inside the caldera, becoming the world's second largest caldera lake. Subsequent eruptions separated a small lake Ilı from Lake Nemrut. Nemrut volcano has an elliptical shape, its size at the base is 27×18 km, and its center contains 377.5 km of volcanic materials. The caldera of Nemrut is the largest in Turkey, the fourth largest in Europe and sixteenth largest in the world. Locals link the name of the volcano with the legendary ruler Nimrod, who is credited with the construction of the Tower of Babel. Turkish chronicles of the 16th century reproduce a local legend as follows: Eruptions of
Urartu local residents began to plunder the Toprakkale ruins, selling its artefacts to European collections. In the 1880s this site underwent a poorly executed excavation organised by Hormuzd Rassam on behalf of the British Museum. Almost nothing was properly documented. The first systematic collection of Urartian inscriptions, and thus the beginning of Urartology as a specialized field dates to the 1870s, with the campaign of Sir Archibald Henry Sayce. The German engineer Karl Sester, discoverer of Mount Nemrut, collected more inscriptions in 1890/1. Waldemar Belck visited the area in 1891, discovering the Rusa stele. A further expedition planned for 1893 was