Göbekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple Built 12,000 Years Ago

Built by a mysterious people more than 12,000 years ago, archaeologists have still not excavated the site entirely. Göbekli Tepe was buried for reasons unknown a few thousand years after its completion.

More than 12,000 years ago, a mysterious people in what is now modern-day Turkey built a massive, intricate set of structures.

Located around 12 km (7 mi) northeast of the city of Şanlıurfa a tell with a height of 15 m (49 ft) and about 300 m (980 ft) in diameter adorns the landscape.

There, at an elevation of around 760 m (2,490 ft) above sea level, the Göbekli people built one of the most mysterious and impressive temples on Earth, commonly referred to by experts as the Stonehenge of the desert.

The complex of Göbekli Tepe is believed to date back to the 10th–8th millennium BCE and is divided into two specific phases.

During the first, phase, what experts dub as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), the builders created massive circles with T-shaped stone pillars eventually producing the world’s oldest known megaliths.

So far, around 200 pillars in about 20 circles have been identified by researchers through geophysical surveys.

Each of the pillars erected at Göbekli Tepe has a height of up to 6 m (20 ft) and weighs around 10 tons, although some argue that certain blocks of stone at the site weigh more than 50 tons.

The pillars atGöbekli Tepe were fitted into sockets that were hewn out of the bedrock.

The second phase of Gobekli Tepe belongs to the so-called Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB). During that phase, the builders erected pillars which were smaller and stood in rectangular rooms with floors that were built of polished lime.

Scholars agree that Göbekli Tepe was mysteriously abandoned after the PPNB.

The details of the structure’s function and purpose remain one of the greatest archeological mysteries.

Due to the gigantic size of the archeological complex, the site has still not been excavated in its entirety.

It still remains a mystery as to who exactly built Gobekli Tepe. According to scholars, 12,000 years ago, the region around which Gobekli Tepe was erected was inhabited by nomad hunter-gatherers.

Whether the site was built by these people or more complex societies that may have existed at the time remains an unanswered historical question.

This is one of the greatest mysteries of the site, as scholars have no obvious explanation for an advanced society inhabiting Upper Mesopotamia at the end of the last Ice Age.

Nonetheless, whoever built this impressive temple made sure it would survive for tens of thousands of years by backfilling the massive circles of Göbekli Tepe burying them deep under thick layers of soil.

Building the massive complex some 12,000 years ago would have required organized quarrying, transportation, planning, and specialized overseers who would make sure everything went according to plan.

The most amazing features of Göbekli Tepe are its T-shaped pillars which are thought to be stylized human beings, as most of them portray human extremities.

Researchers have also found carvings of various abstract symbols as well as a combination of scenes on the different, massive pillars at the site. Furthermore, excavations have revealed that foxes, snakes, wild boars, cranes, wild ducks are among the most commonly depicted animals at Göbekli Tepe.

In 2018, the site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.