Gobekli Tepe – The Oldest Megalithic Site in the World

What is Gobekli Tepe? 🪨

Gobekli Tepe of Sanliurfa (southeast Turkey) is the world’s oldest Megalithic site. It’s excavation uncovered a unique, ancient complex that has gained lots of attention, as it brings question to the current views of science and history. Much of the site, including potential burial grounds or other features, may still lie underground. 

Mainstream research suggests that the settlement was inhabited from at least c. 9500 to 8000 BCE, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. These dates mean the site’s age is estimated to be around 12,000 years old or more, making it one of the oldest known monumental structures. It is famous for its large circular structures that contain massive stone pillars; the world’s oldest known megaliths.

Many of these pillars are decorated with anthropomorphic details (human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities), clothing, and sculptural reliefs (where sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material) of wild animals, providing archaeologists rare insights into prehistoric religion and the particular iconography of the period.

The 15 metre (50 feet) tall, 20 acre tell (an artificial topographical feature, a mound consisting of the accumulated and stratified debris of a succession of consecutive settlements at the same site) is densely covered with ancient domestic structures and other small buildings, quarries, and stone-cut cisterns (a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids) from the Neolithic, as well as some traces of activity from later periods.

Gobekli Tepe also features numerous animal depictions on its pillars and stone sculptures, including foxes, cranes, snakes, wildcats, aurochs, gazelles, as well as various other creatures. Researchers say that this suggests a significant role of animals in the spiritual world of the people who frequented the site.

Gobekli Tepe Photos and Videos 🎥

Here are some pictures of Gobekli Tepe, including Gobekli Tepe skulls/anthropomorphic head artifacts (image 4) discovered by researchers of the site (note skull fragments were also found), Gobekli Tepe statues (image 5) and art/symbols of animals and a headless man carved into ‘Pillar 43’ (image 6). These images are followed by videos about the archaeological site, including Graham Hancock and Bright Insight:

You can read more on ancient history here.