G O B E K L I T E P E  
Gobekli Tepe, Urfa
Gobeklitepe  is a journey into history of mankind no less than 12 000 years back .  The site was discovered  on the Harran plain in the  province of Sanliurfa,  approximately 15 km north. Those who have deep interest in the history of human development are strongly advised to see this site while they are touring southeastern Turkey. Internationally the site was so emphasized that German Magazine, ‘Der Spiegel’, called the ruins  Garden of Eden, from which Adam and Eve were expelled for eating the forbidden apple. The configuration of the site was a man made mound that measured  300 m in diameter and 15 height,  map.





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Urfa Gobekli Tepe tour
Urfa Gobekli Tepe tour
Findings clearly show that  Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunters were first shifting to a sedentary life of farming. Only further investigation would reveal the special significance of this mound, which gradually rose layer upon layer like Schliemann's Troy, but dates at least five thousand years earlier than the "City of Priam."
Gobekli Tepe site has stunned all archaeologists.  Almost  8,000 years before the fall of Troy and 2,000 years before the first evidence of mankind settling down to cultivate crops, our hunter-gatherer ancestors ranged across these low hills. Collecting wild grains, legumes, fruits and berries, chasing down boar and deer and living in rudimentary dwellings, they led an unsophisticated life dictated solely by the basic necessities of food and shelter.
One of the anthropology scientists from the Stanford University who has worked on Turkey's best known Neolithic site  Catalhoyuk  said "Gobekli changes everything. It's elaborate, it's complex and it is pre-agricultural. That alone makes the site one of the most important archaeological finds in a very long time."


It appears that there is at least 20 underground chambers but it is what lies inside these chambers that is incredible. Each contains a series of T-shaped limestone monoliths, the tallest of which are some five meters high. These freestanding stones are anthropomorphic, with the top of the T representing the head of the figure. The stem of the T represents the body, with arms carved in light relief on either side. Many of the monoliths are covered in relief carvings of wild animals, usually either predatory or dangerous, such as lions, snakes, foxes and scorpions. The floors of the temple chambers are of burnt lime, and benches line the walls. That these massive stones were quarried, cut to shape, carted into place and sculpted to such a high standard by Stone Age man -- obviously using only stone and flint tools -- is wholly remarkable, especially when you consider that England's Stonehenge wouldn't be built for another 7,000 years.

The available evidence suggests that this was a place of  communal rituals and it can be argued that it was the need for communal rituals that first brought people together. Agriculture, pottery, domesticated animals and cities all came later.

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