Lake Nemrut chamois has been extinct. The caldera was registered a natural monument in 2003. The protected area around the crater lake covers . Nemrut Caldera Natural Monument () is protected in the status of a tourist attraction, a protected area of first degree and a wetland. The government of Turkey designated the wetland of the caldera as the 14th Ramsar site of the country on April 17, 2013. It is not permitted to cut reed in the caldera and to fish in the lake, although some livestock grazing takes place around the caldera. A winter sports and ski center was established
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