Gobeklitepe Turquie

Gobeklitepe is one of the most interesting Archeological excavations in the World. The secret of Gobeklitepe is not riddled yet. It is about 5.000 years older than the Egypt Pyramids and is the oldest cult ever. Gobeklitepe is located on the South-East our Turkey and about 14 miles away from famous Sanliurfa city center. It is from the Paleolithic Era and is about 10.000 BC old.

First excavations started by the Istanbul and Chicago Universities in 1963; the project was named Prehistoric Research in Southeastern Anatolia. During the excavations it was thought that this unnatural hill could be an old residential or cemetery but there were no more researches.

In 1994, Professor Klaus Schmidt from Heidelberg University started excavations in this area and the importance of Gobeklitepe was found during these researches. The work was accelerated and the thoughts and description for Neolithic age was changed. Until Gobeklitepe was found the general thought was that; such big monuments were built in Neolithic age by the agrarian societies. But they were made by a hunter-gatherer society which changed the truth that was known.

It is on a 15 meters high and 1 km length hill. There aren’t any settlements in Gobeklitepe. It is only a religious center, and a cult center which makes Gobeklitepe unique for that time. It is derived of obelisk in “T” shape and some of them are 7 meter height. There are 300 obelisks and cut as one piece from the mountains which are 500meters away and chipped. There is no clue if the top was covered; it is a kind of an open air Temple area. There are hands and arms in some of these “T” shape obelisks. It is thought that these obelisks symbolize human. Also too many decorations and representations depicting animal figures were painted on these obelisks; bulls, boars, Onager (a kind of a wild donkey), foxes, snakes, wild ducks and vultures are the most common animal motives.

Gobeklitepe is older and bigger cult center than Nevali Cori settlement located in Urfa. About 100.000 animal and human bones were found. It is understood that this cult center of Gobeklitepe was not being used 9.000 years ago and was abandoned. But the reason is not known. Also it is very interesting that this place was covered with sand purposely. We don’t know the reason of this as well. But because of this cover, it was protected until today.

Gobeklitepe keeps its secret and the researches continue.