Nemrut (volcano) of the earliest trade routes. Two eruptions of Nemrut were probably witnessed by people of Urartu, an ancient state located in the eastern Turkey. These eruptions occurred c. 787 BC (period of King Menua) and c. 657 BC (period of King Rusa II), and the latter eruption might cause the sudden disappearance of the city Uaiais located 30 km east of Süphan. In the 1980s, Japanese volcanologists studied the evolution of gases inside the caldera of Nemrut. They found that the ratio of helium isotopes He/He is 1.06, which indicates volcanic activity (most of the measured helium evolved from the
Nemrut (volcano) many measurements and observations. He also suggested possible ways of the evolution of Nemrut, most of which were confirmed later. In the 20th century, the scientific study of the volcano was interrupted by the political instability in the region. In the first half of the 20th century Nemrut was wrongly classified as an extinct volcano. Only in the 1980s, with the resumption of the studies, its status was changed to dormant. Currently Nemrut is mainly studied by Turkish volcanologists. The volcano is still poorly understood, and there is no consensus on the interpretation of stratigraphic data. Analysis of the sediments