Gobekli Tepe ancient architectural complex, Türkiye: Sacred temple on the mountain

Gobekli Tepe is an ancient architectural complex located on the top of a mountain range stretching 15km southeast of Turkey.

Gobekli Tepe stands out with large monolithic T-shaped sandstone pillars over 3 meters high, a vault containing relics of ancient people... its origin is still a great mystery.
Archaeologists believe that Gobekli Tepe was built by ancient people around 9,000 BC with rudimentary tools at that time. Gobekli Tepe existed about 5,500 years before Mesopotamian civilization and 6,000 years before England's famous Stonehenge stone circles.

This place has become a "sacred temple on the mountain" and a gathering place for residents around the area. Up to now, up to 6 temples have been found in this architectural complex and archaeological work is still continuing...

The oldest architecture discovered by humans

Gobekli Tepe was discovered in 1964 by archaeologists from Istanbul University and the University of Chicago because of its unusual geographical structures. A large amount of flint and limestone slabs concentrated in the area has led researchers to speculate that under the hills is a cemetery of the Byzantines (a medieval empire that flourished in the 19th century). XI - XII).

Only in 1994, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt presented archaeological evidence proving that this place was an ancient Stone Age relic, that large-scale excavations began.
The first highlight in the Gobekli Tepe architectural complex is the walls built of rough stone and T-shaped monolithic stone columns over 3 meters high. In the center of the architecture are two large stone columns, with stone platforms running along the entire outer wall. Up to eight columns are arranged evenly around the wall of the main room, the rectangular rooms are adjacent to the floor made of limestone powder... Uncut stone slabs are placed in the space between the columns. On the stone pillars are carved images of animals such as lions, foxes, donkeys, birds, snakes and even human figures.
At the quarry near Gobekli Tepe, archaeologists found stone statues, unfinished stone pillars and even mining tools, stone pickaxes. Recent excavations have revealed the scale of Gobekli Tepe's complexity, which consists of many floors built on top of each other, suggesting that the construction period could have lasted several thousand years.

There are not many carvings depicting people at Gobekli Tepe, only a single figure of a nude woman in a sitting position similar to statues found in North Africa from the same period. Some stone pillars have human hands carved in them, researchers believe that this is a stylization of the humanoid gods of ancient people. There are also stone pillars carved in the shape of praying hands with a simple shawl, like a sacrificial robe that could represent the temple's priest.
The discovery of Gobekli Tepe has fundamentally changed human understanding of a decisive period in the development of ancient human society. It can be seen that humans in the hunter-gatherer period were also able to build temple complexes, not just in more developed communities. Gobekli Tepe was the first step in building later cities.

Unsolved mysteries

The construction of Gobekli Tepe required a huge amount of labor, and a large amount of animal bones found at the archaeological site are believed to have been a food source for the temple builders.
Archaeologist Joris Peters, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, after analyzing thousands of animal bone fragments found at Gobekli Tepe, has made a hypothesis about how the builders of that period lived.
Based on the cuts and chop marks on the bones... he assumed that the animals were brought here to be slaughtered and cooked. Ancient people faced a major change in their way of living. They domesticated sheep, pigs... and even nuts during the settlement process to build Gobekli Tepe.

So what made them change? Archaeologists have found evidence of wheat domestication in a prehistoric village just 30km away. Carbon dating shows that just five centuries after Gobekli Tepe was born, agriculture was very developed here.

While excavations are underway, the question of why Gobekli Tepe was buried right where it was built is also controversial. When the structures were finally built, it appeared that the ancients had deliberately buried and hidden Gobekli Tepe for thousands of years. What made them do that?

Many hypotheses have been raised such as hiding the presence of aliens, or simply to protect this project from non-believers,... all of which do not have a satisfactory answer, only know that after thousands of years the pillars and carvings are still preserved in good condition.

Builders cut, chiseled, and transported tons of stone blocks without wheels or draft animals. The pillars are estimated to weigh 4~6 tons and the question is how did the builders of that period erect them with only simple hand tools?

One hypothesis put forward by Klaus Schmidt, the archaeologist who was instrumental in discovering Gobekli Tepe, is how the craftsmen crafted the giant stone pillars here. Klaus Schmidt said: "Limestone slabs are quite soft and craftsmen can use flint to shape them into pillars on the spot."

In an article published in the Telegraph, the carvings on the pillars at Gobekli Tepe depict a collision between a comet and Earth. Researchers analyzed the symbols on the stone pillars. With the help of computers, the images were translated into astronomical symbols and linked to star maps. This allowed them to date the collision thousands of years ago.

This event led to the extinction of many species on Earth but also gave birth to Neolithic civilization. The research team hypothesized that Gobekli Tepe is an observatory and that the stone pillars commemorate the collision between the comet and Earth.
Excavations have also found some human bones in the soil layers, perhaps the bottom of Gobekli Tepe contains its purpose: a world of the dead. "Gobekli Tepe may have been the center of a cult, where the dead were buried next to stylized gods and souls in the afterlife," Schmidt said. There are many major religious centers in the world that are destinations for devotees such as the Vatican, Mecca, Jerusalem, Bodh Gaya or Cahokia... and the ancient temple of Gobekli Tepe may be the first religious building in the world. .