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Turkish UNESCO World Heritage Site Göbeklitepe Temple expects record visits in 2022

Located about 10 miles northeast of Şanlıurfa, near Örencik village, and about 13 miles from Istanbul, the 11,500-year-old Göbeklitepe site is home to the world’s oldest religious monuments.

NEW YORK – Göbeklitepe Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Türkiye and one of the world’s most important Neolithic Age settlements, hosted a record-breaking half-million visitors in 2021, a number that is expected to rise in 2022. Located about 10 miles northeast of Şanlıurfa, near Örencik village, and about 13 miles from Istanbul, the 11,500-year-old Göbeklitepe site is home to the world’s oldest religious monuments.

With a history dating to 9600 BCE, Göbeklitepe has changed the narrative on Neolithic Era hunter-gatherer communities. Göbeklitepe Temple – built tens of centuries prior to the invention of writing and the wheel, 7,100 years before the Egyptian Pyramids and 6,100 years before Stonehenge – reveals evidence indicating that hunter-gatherer societies were more advanced than previously thought.

The T-shaped obelisks at Göbeklitepe, reaching more than 18 feet in height, are the first examples of human-made monumental architecture. These obelisks, which feature animal motifs, geometric shapes and human depictions reminiscent of a mythological narrative, show that Göbeklitepe was used as an important cultural center. The Göbeklitepe obelisks, carved with flint at a time when metal tools were not yet available, are also the oldest sculptures in the world and among the oldest artistic works in human history. Göbeklitepe also hosts the first examples of the transition to settled life, demonstrating that Neolithic Age communities possessed social organization and could come together for a faith-based purpose. 

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