What is Göbeklitepe?

Göbeklitepe, which entered the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list in 2018 and which the Ministry of Culture named 2019 as the "Year of Göbeklitepe": “It was discovered in 1963 during a survey carried out in partnership with the Universities of Istanbul and Chicago and was named the “V52 Neolithic Settlement”. In the middle of approximately 20 round and oval structures with a diameter of 30 meters, there are 2 “T” shaped, 5 meters high, independent columns made of limestone. There are smaller columns on the inner walls of the buildings.

So, when was Göbeklitepe officially discovered?

Although the survey was conducted in 1963, Göbeklitepe was officially discovered in 1994 by the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt. Before the work in 1994, in 1983, the farmer Mahmut Kılınç, who owned a field in the region, came across a stone while plowing his field and took this stone to the Şanlıurfa Museum. However, the museum officials' failure to fully grasp the importance and historical place of this stone could not accelerate the work. During the study in 1994, almost 11 years later, the true significance of Göbeklitepe was discovered. It has been determined that it covers an area with a height of 15 meters and a diameter of 300 meters in total. There are more than 200 columns in 20 different circles. Each of these pillars is 6 meters high and weighs approximately 10 tons.

Where is Göbeklitepe?

Göbeklitepe is near Örencik Village, 18 kilometers northeast of Şanlıurfa city centre. It is understood that it was a cult center dating back to 12,000 years ago.

How to get to Göbeklitepe?

“You can reach it by car in 2 hours from Gaziantep and 2.5 hours from Diyarbakır and Mardin. If you do not have a vehicle, you can use the public transportation vehicles of the municipality. If you are in the city center of Şanlıurfa, you can reach Göbeklitepe by taking the bus number 100 from Abide stop. Although Göbeklitepe covers a large area, the public area is quite small. You may not be able to visit the entire region, as work and excavations continue. It is enough to take an average of 1 hour of your time. The ruins are open to visitors every day of the week. Before you reach the region, you should know that it is open to visitors every morning at 08:00, since summer and winter time is applied, and it is open until 19:00 from April to October, and until 17:00 from October to April.

Göbeklitepe Story and Its Importance

Göbeklitepe was used as an agricultural area by local farmers until it was officially discovered. Changes have occurred in the surface area due to the farmers moving the stones in the region. There is also information that some stones were broken during this process.

The importance of Göbeklitepe comes primarily from the hunter-gatherer culture in the Stone Age, the time period when humanity transitioned to settled life, and the fact that it deeply shook the knowledge of agriculture. In other words, with Göbeklitepe, the world of science completely changed the perspective of Neolithic Age people. So much so that scientists did not think that Neolithic Age people could build such large structures. 

Gobeklitepe, whose history dates back 12,000 years, is still underway. Although the information we currently have is likely to change with new findings, the reason why Göbeklitepe was built remains a mystery. There is no clear evidence that Göbeklitepe, which is 8,000 years older than the pyramids and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge, was a settlement. The view that supports this argues that there are no finds such as pots, utensils, garbage pits, knives, cutting tools. There is an interesting view about Göbeklitepe that is supported by the local people. According to Mahmut Kılınç, it has become a tradition for women without children to come to this hill and pray. This tradition dates back to before the Göbeklitepe discovery. The interesting part of the story starts at this point. There is a relief of a woman giving birth on one of the columns in Göbelitepe. The world's oldest known woman giving birth is in Göbeklitepe.

Another astonishing claim about Göbeklitepe is that this building is covered in the same way as it was made by human hands. About 1000 years after its construction, Göbeklitepe was deliberately covered with earth by human hands. This claim is strengthened by the findings that the soil layer on the ground was transplanted and corrected by man rather than naturally.

6 structures have been unearthed in Göbeklitepe so far, but there are 20 structures and 200 more obelisks in total. Contrary to the known Neolithic Age people, Göbeklitepe, which shook all the information deeply, is gaining importance day by day because an advanced architectural technique is used. There are also animal reliefs such as leopard, wild boar, scorpion, stork, fox, gazelle and snake on these columns and obelisks. These carvings became known as the earliest known 3D reliefs. In addition, the most popular feature of Göbeklitepe is its T-shaped columns. There are no faces or expressions in these columns. However, since there are hand and finger carvings on these columns, there are theories that if this is a place of worship, the T-shaped columns portray the "god" figure. Since the hand and finger were carved, but the facial features were not, these pillars may have been given a celestial meaning.

Why was Göbeklitepe Built?

Although there are opinions about it being a temple or a shelter, there is no information that fully supports it. The most popular hypothesis is that Göbeklitepe is a place of worship. If this information is proven, Göbeklitepe will be the oldest known temple in human history. This reveals the following view: If such large and complex structures could be built 12000 years ago, and if the place of worship was designed and created by humanity, this date may be even earlier than 12000 years. If we look at the view that agriculture and hunting provide the transition to settled life, Göbeklitepe also raises the question of whether humanity has settled down for agriculture or for worship.

Moreover, archaeologist Joris Peters has examined more than 100,000 bone remains at this site and reported finding cut marks and splinter ends in animal bones. This shows that the people of Göbeklitepe used cutting and piercing tools to hunt animals at that time. According to some expert opinions, Göbeklitepe was more of a shelter than a place of worship. They think that the ancestors who migrated to distant places rested or took a break in this region. This view also gives rise to Göbeklitepe being a "shelter" that preserves its mystery. The supporting explanation is that shelter may be a more dominant motive than worship.