Göbekli Tepe - Göbekli Tepe

Göbekli Tepe ("rounded hill") is an archaeological site World Heritage Site ofSoutheastern Anatolia.

To know

The oldest example of a stone temple was found on this site, dating back to the 10th millennium BC, and therefore dating back to at least 11600 years ago.

Geographical notes

Located about 18 km northeast of the city of Şanlıurfa, near the border with the Syria. Göbekli Tepe consists of an artificial hill about 15 m high with a diameter of about 300 m, located on the highest point of an elongated elevation, overlooking the surrounding region, between the Taurus range and the Karaca Dağ and the valley where the city of Harran.

Background

The archaeological value of this locality was recognized in 1963 by a Turkish-American research group, who noticed several large heaps of flint fragments, a sign of human activity in the Stone Age.

The site was rediscovered thirty years later by a local shepherd, who noticed some oddly shaped stones sticking out of the ground. The news reached the head of the museum of the city of Şanlıurfa, who contacted the ministry, which in turn got in touch with the headquarters of Istanbul of the Germanic Archaeological Institute. The excavations were started in 1995 by a joint mission of the Şanlıurfa museum and the Germanic Archaeological Institute. In 2006 the excavations went to the German universities of Heidelberg and of Karlsruhe. The archaeological site was opened for public visits in March 2019.

From the excavations carried out it has been ascertained that the site was deliberately abandoned and voluntarily buried with earth brought by man around 8000 BC. Based on the results it is assumed that Göbekli Tepe is a stone age sanctuary. However, it is not clear how it was used and what religion it followed.

On 1 July 2018, Göbekli Tepe was declared UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How to get

Permits / Rates

• Entrance, @[email protected]. 45 TL (Nov 2020). 1 Apr - 24 Oct: Mon-Sun 10: 00-18: 00, 24 Oct - 1 Apr Mon-Sun 08: 30-17: 00. 

How to get around

What see

• Temple A (snake pillar building). It is the first to be excavated. Here, approximately 3 meters high vertical pillars came to light. Walls more than a meter thick were built around the pillars, made of stones about 80 centimeters long. Overall, Temple A has a square shape. The entrance was to the south-east, of which a carved stone slab that once belonged to a door has been preserved. Three of the pillars have reliefs. There are five representations of snakes on the front, which have given the whole complex the name of the "snake pillar building". Below is a small representation of a four-legged animal. Pillar 2 has a high relief representation of a bucranon on its back. On the side of this pillar facing the room there was also a group of animals consisting of a bull, a fox and a crane. This temple has not yet been fully excavated. In particular, the floor has not yet been reached. 

• Temple B (fox pillar building). This temple features a pair of central pillars around which several pillars connected by walls were concentrically arranged. The diameter of the building is 9 meters in the east-west direction and 10 to 15 meters in the north-south direction. The two central pillars were oriented in a north-south direction and within their shafts each have a life-size high relief representation of a fox, which is why this building was also given the name of "fox pillar building. ". These two pillars were located in a terrazzo floor in which a stone bowl was placed in front of pillar 9, to which a small channel led from the outside. The heights of the individual pillars vary considerably, an argument in favor of the hypothesis that the structure was not covered. Apart from the two central pillars, only two other pillars have reliefs. A bas-relief was affixed to the back surface which presumably shows a reptile from above. 

• Temple C (House of Boars). This temple consists of four concentric circles around a pair of central pillars and has a total diameter of over 30 meters. However, the rings of the wall were not created at the same time, but were gradually pulled up from the outside inwards, making the inside of the complex at least twice as small. Nine T-shaped pillars were discovered in the inner ring of the wall, although there must have been some additional pillars which were at some point probably removed by the peasants. So far four pillars of the second ring of walls have been found. Representations of this structure are dominated by wild boars. Pillar 23, which is part of the central ring wall, has an almost life-size representation of a boar's head on the left side of the well. Pillar 12 of the central wall shows a particularly rich decoration. There are five duck-like birds in front of a net pattern. Below, on the pillar, there is a mighty boar and under the image of the fox. At the height of the fox's neck there was a terrazzo floor, which, as shown by the partial coverage of the relief, must belong to the most recent construction phase of the complex. The conservation status of this temple is relatively poor. The devastation is roughly datable to the end of the pre-ceramic Neolithic on the basis of some fragments found in the pit. 

• Temple D. Temple D is the largest, best preserved and most richly designed. It has an oval plant with a maximum internal diameter of 20 meters. Its central pillars are more than 5 meters high, so they protrude on the pillars in a circle of at least one meter. Pillar 20 was damaged in the Stone Age and has three reliefs on the chest of the shaft depicting the snake, the bull and the fox. Pillar 21 has an almost life-size relief of a gazelle's head on the left side, under which there is a relief of an onager and a large cat. Two spiders or insects are shown on the right side, but they are poorly crafted. Pillar 20 shows a fox on the left side of the shaft, a snake on the chest and probably a hare on the right side. The inside has a particularly rich picture program, while most of the other pillars have no decorations. The images are no longer visible in the upper area, but below are snakes, H signs, an insect, a spider and a sheep. Pillar 38 bears a total of six depictions of animals, including a bull on the face. The other representations are those of a fox, a wild boar and three birds. There are also depictions of a bucranon and, on the opposite side, an ibis-like bird. 
• 37.222238.919711 Museum. 

What to do

Shopping

Where to eat

• 37.2221138.919481 Coffee bar. 

Where stay

Safety

How to keep in touch

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Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Göbekli Tepe
• Commons contains images or other files on Göbekli Tepe

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