Göbekli Tepe — archaeological site
Spica-Vega Photo Arts (Banu Nazikcan) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Göbekli Tepe

Göbeklitepe

  • Elevation760 m
  • 2 min read
  • 37.223° N 38.922° E
  • UNESCO World Heritage

Interesting facts

  • In Turkish the name means Potbelly Hill, while one Kurdish name for the mound translates as Wish Hill.
  • When the site was first surveyed in 1963, an American archaeologist mistook the tops of the great pillars for grave markers.
  • Before excavation, farmers ploughing the hill had tried to break up some pillars, apparently taking them for ordinary boulders in their fields.
  • Geophysical surveys suggest about 16 more buried enclosures, which could together hold nearly 200 pillars; only around a tenth of the mound had been dug by 2021.
  • Rock-cut cisterns fed by carved channels collected rainwater on the hilltop and could store at least 150 cubic metres of water.
  • About 90 percent of the charcoal found on the site comes from pistachio and almond trees, as there were no substantial woodlands nearby.
  • In 2017 fragments of human skulls with deliberate carved grooves were found, suggesting a skull cult like those known from other early Neolithic sites.
  • A carved stone totem pole almost two metres tall shows three figures stacked one above another, flanked by snakes on both sides.
  • Only one certain image of a woman has been found at the site: a naked figure engraved on a stone slab.
  • Animal bones point to large-scale gazelle hunting between midsummer and autumn, perhaps timed to herds migrating past the hill.

Why it is worth it

Göbekli Tepe changes the order in which the story of civilisation is usually told. On a limestone ridge north-east of Şanlıurfa, a mound about 15 metres high and 8 hectares across holds monumental enclosures built between roughly 9500 and 8000 BC — by people who had not yet adopted pottery and were only on the threshold of farming. Monumental building, it turns out, did not have to wait for villages and fields; it may even have helped to bring them about.

What visitors come to see are the enclosures: round and oval spaces 10 to 30 metres across, their walls set with T-shaped limestone pillars, the oldest known megaliths anywhere. In the largest, Enclosure D, the two central pillars stand about 5.5 metres tall and weigh an estimated eight to ten tonnes each. The T is not a mere support: the pillars are stylised human figures seen from the side, and some carry carved arms that bend round to hands meeting above the belly, belts and fox-pelt loincloths. Over their faces crawl and leap the animals of the Stone Age landscape — foxes, wild boars, snakes, lions and vultures — cut in low relief with a confidence that is startling for their age.

The surface was noticed during a survey in 1963, but its significance was recognised only in 1994 by the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, who led excavations from 1995 until his death in 2014; work continues under a Turkish-German team. Only a small part of the mound has been dug, and geophysical surveys suggest many more enclosures lie buried. Interpretation is still debated — Schmidt saw a ritual centre, while more recent work also finds signs of everyday life — and other sites with T-shaped pillars in the surrounding region show that Göbekli Tepe was part of a wider world. UNESCO listed it in 2018.

The excavated enclosures are now under a large protective roof, with walkways around them, so the pillars are seen from above, much as their builders might have looked down into the circles.

Getting there

The site lies about 13 km from the centre of Şanlıurfa. Şanlıurfa GAP Airport (GNY) is about 25 km away. From the city the usual approach is by car, taxi or organised excursion.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Turkey 47The Most Remarkable Ancient Monuments 7The Greatest UNESCO-Listed Archaeological Wonders in Turkey 7The Most Beautiful Ancient Squares, Streets and Monuments 8The Most Remarkable Archaeological Sites in Turkey 11The Greatest Archaeological Wonders in Turkey 15The Most Beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Turkey 16The Most Remarkable UNESCO-Listed Monuments 20The Most Beautiful UNESCO-Listed Squares, Streets and Monuments 33The Most Remarkable Ancient Archaeological Sites 36The Greatest Ancient Archaeological Wonders 52The Most Remarkable Monuments 56The Most Remarkable Ancient Places 78The Most Remarkable UNESCO-Listed Archaeological Sites 114The Greatest UNESCO-Listed Archaeological Wonders 149The Most Beautiful Squares, Streets and Monuments 173The Most Remarkable Archaeological Sites 193The Greatest Archaeological Wonders 306The Most Beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites 557

From the encyclopaedia

Göbekli Tepe is a Neolithic archaeological site in Upper Mesopotamia (al-Jazira) in modern-day Turkey. The settlement was inhabited from around 9500 BCE to at least 8000 BCE, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is known for its large circular structures that contain large stone pillars – among the world's oldest known megaliths. Many of these pillars are decorated with anthropomorphic details, clothing, and sculptural reliefs of wild animals, providing archaeologists insights into prehistoric religion and the iconography of the period. The 15 m (50 ft) high, 8 ha (20-acre) tell is covered with ancient domestic structures and other small buildings, quarries, and stone-cut cisterns from the Neolithic, as well as some traces of activity from later periods.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

37.22306, 38.92250per Wikidata