Nemrut (volcano) the region. The collision of these plates began in the Middle Eocene and closed the stretch of water, which in the Mesozoic formed the Tethys Ocean. Nemrut, along with three other extinct volcanoes of eastern Turkey: Ararat, Tendürek and Süphan, is located in the area of a complex fault, which runs along the boundary of the Arabian and Eurasian plates in the territory of the Armenian Highland. It is the westernmost of these volcanoes, the only one that remains active, and generally the only volcano in Anatolia, which erupted in the historical period. Nemrut is located 10 km north 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