In the ancient city of Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey, many archaeological sites dating back to the Neolithic era were discovered, called stone hills, the most famous of which are Göbekli Tepe, and also "Karahantepe", whose age is estimated between 11,000 and 13,000 years, making it among the oldest in the world compared to As old as the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is 4,500 years old, or the British site of Stonehenge, which is 5,000 years old, or even the cemetery of “Cairn de Barnenese”, which is the oldest standing building in Europe at the age of 7,000 years.

In his report, published by the British "spectator" website, author Sean Thomas says that the "Gantiga" temple in Malta is considered the oldest archaeological temple in the world, with an estimated age of 5,500 years, but it was found that the city of "Karahan Tepe" and its stone monuments and all Its surroundings, including mausoleums, dungeons, altars, petroglyphs, audience halls, etc., are much older than any other monuments.

Historic discovery

The ruins of Karahantepe have been unearthed over the past two years.

Given its age, complexity, sophistication, and deep mystery, it may be the greatest discovery in human history, and it is expected that the site will be opened to the public this year.

The writer mentioned that Nejmi Karol, the chief archaeologist in charge of all local excavations from Istanbul University, summoned him to see the latest findings in this area, because he was one of the first Western journalists to come to the area many years ago and write about the origin of the stone mound sites.

In late 1994, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt came to the Göbekli Teppe site, to begin the slow and tireless excavation of multiple, strange and huge stones.

The ancient monumental stones were often intricately carved, with carvings of local animals, as well as figurines of humans.

The very ancient history of Göbekli Tepe, which was first built since 10,000 BC if not earlier, has caused many doubts.

But over time archaeologists began to accept its degree of importance.

For his part, Ian Howden, of Stanford University, announced that the "Gobekli Tab" site changes all the data.

"Gobekli Tepe is the most important archaeological site in the world," said David Lewis Williams, professor of archeology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg at the time.

Gobekli Tebh

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Göbekli Tepe site was not well known to the people, as the writer noted that when he traveled there in 2006, the locals in the nearby big city Şanlıurfa had no idea what was there.

The writer mentioned that he asked one of the taxi drivers, on the day he arrived, to take him to Gobekli Tepe, but he had never heard of him before, and that is similar to today asking someone in Paris if he had heard of the Louvre and he replied that he did not know him.

After consulting several colleagues, the taxi driver managed to find where the writer wanted to go. He followed the road outside Şanlıurfa to the top of a remote hill where he came across a scene similar to those seen in horror movies, as archaeologists dig for their world-changing discoveries.

The writer took several pictures of Klaus, who was accompanying him, and of the stone sites and workers, knowing that he was the only tourist there at the time, and some of those pictures were very successful and famous.

According to Klaus, "Göbekli Tepe changes our idea of ​​human history, as we have always thought that agriculture came first, then civilization, but that was reversed in this place, where it seems that the construction of the ritual center came first, and then when enough hunters gathered to worship they realized that they had to Feed the people, hence agriculture. This is where Homo sapiens moved from picking the fruit from the tree to toiling and cultivating the land."

Klaus noted that for people who believe in the myth of the Garden of Eden as an allegory of the Neolithic revolution, Göbeklitepe and its environs are likely where this happened.

"I think this site is a temple in the Garden of Eden," said Klaus, a quote the writer has reused many times, though people took Klaus literally, though it was just a metaphor.

The writer added that there were no homes, no human remains at the site, nor any indication of their religion, but what scholars know is that sometime in 8 thousand BC, the founders of Göbeklitepe buried their great architectural structures under tons of rubble, and the question remains whether Why do they feel guilty?

Or they wanted to appease an "angry god"?

Or just wanted to hide their city?

Confused and excited at the same time, the writer left the place, writing some articles and then publishing his famous novel, motivating many other writers, academics and filmmakers to take the sometimes perilous journey to this amazing and bewildering place, near the turbulent Turkish-Syrian border, whose fame slowly grew.

In 2022, the writer, Nejmi, and Aydan Aslan, director of the Şanlıurfa Department of Culture and Tourism, returned to see today's Göbekli Tepe site.

Everything has changed these days, and Göbekli Tepe is no longer just a famous archaeological site, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site that receives nearly one million visitors annually.

My star led the writer to a museum built to display and protect the region's greatest finds, including an 11,000-year-old statue of the "Urfa Man" recovered from down the center from Şanlıurfa itself, and possibly the world's oldest life-size carved human figure.

Today, the Urfa Man stands in his own hall at one of Turkey's largest archaeological exhibitions.

As they toured the museum, Najmi was pointing out that there were many carvings of leopards and eagles.

Aslan added that archaeologists recently found puzzling evidence for the presence of alcohol in Göbekli Tepe, by discovering huge vats with chemical residues of fermentation, which indicates the establishment of huge ceremonial feasts, most likely.

new interpretation

The author reported that he is approaching a very important new interpretation of the Gobekli Tepe and the Stone Hills, an interpretation quite different from the perspective given by Klaus Schmidt in 2006.

The writer mentioned that Nejmi brought him back to Karahan Tepe and to some places of the stone hills so that they could see this historical mystery together, and while they were rushing towards the barren slopes, Nejmi explained to him how scientists found evidence of homes in these areas.

The writer mentioned that the places in the stone hills were not isolated temples, as the hunters used to come several times a year to practice their rituals at the orthogonal stone edifices, before returning to the plains to pursue a life of hunting animals.

The builders used to live here and do all the activities necessary for the continuation of life, such as hunting and art.

However, there is absolutely no sign of them cultivating;

Perhaps they were hunters and gatherers who lacked sophistication and skill.

Another strange thing is the large number of sculptures of people with 6 fingers.

Is this a symbolic distortion or real?

We may now have tentative ideas about the actual religion of these people.

The writer added that many skulls were recovered from the Göbekli Tepe region, and it seems that they were deliberately emptied and carefully punctured so that they could be hung and displayed.

The beliefs of the owners of these skulls were not known in the ancient Anatolia region, and if there was such a belief in the area of ​​the stone hills, it might be explained by the inscriptions of eagles "tampering" with human heads, and the skulls may have resulted from conflicts or by making human sacrifices.

Were you buried intentionally?

While only 1% of the site has been discovered, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt has been proven quite right when he suggested that Gobekli Tepe was deliberately buried by its founders. Among the stone monuments, which led to their gradual disappearance.

The question is: Why should any religious community bury its own temples that must have taken decades to build?

The writer says that Karahan Teppe was also definitely buried on purpose, which is why Nejmi and his team were able to quickly discover the pillars;

All they had to do was remove the backfill to reveal the columns carved out of the rocks.

“Did the people who built those sites have a writing system?” The writer asked. It is almost impossible to believe that such complex sites can be created in multiple places and over a very large area without precise and clear plans, that is, without writing.

The answer can be guessed as archaeologists in southeastern Turkey are now excavating a large, strange, artistically coherent and as yet unknown Mesopotamian religious civilization that was deliberately buried 10,000 years ago.

The writer and my star went to the Arab-Turkish village of Sayburk, where they found Tai stones of the Gobekli and Karahan style used to support the walls, and their age ranges between 11,000 and 13,000 years.

They also found within a stone barn amazing stone artifacts showing human and animal figures such as tigers and bulls engraved in a cubist manner.

An identical depiction of bulls can be observed in Göbekli Tepe which raises the question whether they were carved by the same person.