Gobekli Tepe, Eastern Turkey – When you cast your thoughts to the ancient world – you may recall places you have heard about in history classes and textbooks. Babylon for example, is one of the most iconic ruins of the ancient world. Also in Mesopotamia, there is Ur and there is of course Stone Henge – long considered to be one of the oldest sites in human history with evidence of a human composed holy site for worship, sacrifice and community.
However, what if there was another site with clear evidence of holy worship and human settlement predating Stone Henge by around 6,000 years? The site’s name is Gobkli Tepe and it is an undiscovered gem in South-Eastern Anatolia in modern-day Türkiye.
The Discovery of Gobekli Tepe
While Gobekli Tepe is considered to be one of the oldest sites of worship in the world – estimated to have been created 11,000 years ago, the discovery of the site has been much more recent.
This site was only discovered in 1994 by German archaeologists. The site is located a handful of kilometers away from the town of Sanılurfa (commonly known as Urfa) in far SouthEastern Anatolia. SouthEastern Anatolia is a cradle of ethnic groups, religions and languages and is home to many ancient towns and structures like Gobekli Tepe.
Escavations and Findings:
Escavations began after the discovery in 1994 and have continued throughout most seasons, besides summer as temperatures are scorching. Originally, the site was discovered and dismissed three decades prior, as just mounds of rocks and stone without any further significance. However in 1994 Klaus Schmidt returned to the site to begin his own exploration.
Since then, a team of German Archaeologists and approximately 50 local labourers have discovered and examined many rocks and stones with carvings, pictures and imprints on them. Similarly, archaeologists have examined more than 10,000 bone fragments with different cuts and abrasions on them.
Gobekli Tepe is a series of pits lower than the current ground level in the area. The pits are relatively organized into different pillars and stones arranged into irregular circle shapes, but nonetheless distinguishably in circles.
Carvings on these stones show animals and elements – a form of communication that predates writing, pottery, Stone Henge, even the pyramids.
Implications Of Gobekli Tepe:
It is believed that the site of Gobekli Tepe is perhaps the first evidence of religious organisation, paganism and place of worship in the history of humanity. Other sites in SouthEastern Turkiye show evidence of ancient human settlement, so the discovery of Gobekli Tepe not so long ago is special in its own right – but also is a site completely profound and special in its own sense.
The depiction of animals on stone, the carving and cutting of animal bones and the organisation of the stones has led experts to believe that this was perhaps a holy site of sacrifice, where the locals offered up animals to perhaps a higher being.
Gobekli Tepe is of course a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It meets the first criterion:
“Criterion (i): The communities that built the monumental megalithic structures of Göbekli Tepe lived during one of the most momentous transitions in human history, one which took us from hunter-gatherer lifeways to the first farming communities.”
Therefore the importance of Gobekli Tepe is profound and yet – many people do not know of its existence!
Visiting Gobekli Tepe in 2025
You can visit Gobekli Tepe on our Alternative Turkey Tour in November 2025! Along with other important UNESCO sites such as the incredible ruins of Nemrut, the Akdamar Kilisesi Apolistic Armenian Church and other incredible sites across SouthEastern Anatolia and the Eastern Anatolia regions!
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