Gobeklitepe Archaeological Site is located near Orencik Village, 18 kilometers northeast of Sanlıurfa city center. The site was discovered in 1963 during a survey conducted jointly by the Universities of Istanbul and Chicago and identified as “V52 Neolithic Settlement”. The real value of the site began to emerge with the excavations started after 1994. These excavations revealed that Gobeklitepe was a cult center dating back 12000 years.
In the middle of about 20 round and oval structures with a diameter of 30 meters, there are 2 “T” shaped, 5 meter high, freestanding limestone columns. There are also smaller columns on the inner walls of the structures. The aforementioned scientific data on Gobeklitepe provides important information that requires a re-evaluation of the theoretical framework and dating of the Neolithic period in archaeological studies. Gobeklitepe, with its location, dimensions, dating and the monumentality of its structures, has been understood to be a unique sanctuary for the Neolithic period. Since the site remained untouched in its natural environment for 12000 years, it yielded important archaeological finds.
Gobeklitepe, a work of great organization and imagination, is the oldest monument of this size and beyond the firsts, it constitutes the zero point of history in many ways. The construction of temples requiring advanced architecture at a time when man was living as a hunter-gatherer has caused astonishment all over the world. Reflecting the belief world of prehistoric man, the temples enriched with animist figures have made Gobeklitepe one of the most important discoveries in the history of archaeology.
Undoubtedly, in addition to its fascination, all kinds of data and scientific results obtained from the excavations regarding prehistoric life are of great importance for the history of humanity. Gobeklitepe, the first temple built during the time of hunter and gatherer human societies, which were far away from the concepts of settlement and agriculture, before the transition to urban life, is considered to be the “greatest archaeological discovery” of recent years. The temple, which is still unanswered how it was designed about 12 thousand years ago, attracts attention with the fact that it was built about 7,500 years before the Pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in England.
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