Göbekli Tepe - "Pot-bellied hill" (translated from Turkish - "navel of the earth") is a mysterious temple complex on the Armenian Highlands in the upper reaches of the Euphrates River. It is located at a distance of 8 kilometers from the current city of Sanliurfa, which in ancient times bore the Greek name Edessa - the southeast of modern Turkey.
Göbekli Tepe is the oldest structures on the planet, according to archaeologists, the complex was created 12 thousand years ago, that is, in the Mesolithic era, it is older than Stonehenge and the first cities of Mesopotamia. Scientists believe that the complex was built by nomads, and later settlements of sedentary tribes appeared here. But is it? Ancient megaliths are fraught with many mysteries that have not yet been solved.
Until the middle of the last century, the rounded Göbekli Tepe hill, 15 meters high, was nothing remarkable. In the 1960s, American archaeologists appeared on Puzat Hill, led by Peter Benedict, who suggested that there was a Byzantine cemetery under the hill. During the excavations, some ancient artifacts (flint knives, scrapers) were found. However, local authorities have forbidden archaeologists to continue excavations.
And only in 1995, employees of the Istanbul branch of the German Archaeological Institute began to excavate Göbekli Tepe in cooperation with the Sanliurfa Museum under the leadership of archaeologist Klaus Schmidt.
As a result of excavations conducted since the beginning of 1995, 6 temple structures have been discovered. In 2015, several more were identified. Temples were designated as A, B, C, D, etc. Common characteristics for all temples are two T-shaped columns located in the center and 10 or 12 columns around. The height of the columns ranges from 3 to 6 meters.
Promotional video:
The stone columns weighing up to 50 tons are decorated with unique skillful carvings. They depict foxes, wild boars, herons, lions, kites, snakes, spiders … some have symbols of the Sun and the Moon. There are also images of creatures similar to people, only faceless. On some steles there are pictograms that have not yet been deciphered.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to imagine how the structures of the complex looked as a whole, at present, unfortunately, since only 5% of the entire area of Göbekli Tepe has been excavated, moreover, the upper part of the structures has been destroyed by weathering.
It is established that the stone for this structure was mined in quarries located nearby. Several unfinished columns were found here, the height of which reached 9 meters.
A natural question arises: who built this megalithic complex, and what functions did it perform? After all, if the dating is correct, then it was created in the Stone Age. According to academic science, at that time primitive people gathered wild fruits, hunted animals, made tools from flint, and used fire. But at the same time, they still did not know how to make products from metal and ceramics, build stone dwellings, did not know agriculture. Even the wheel has not yet been invented.
How, then, could the people of the Mesolithic, not having metal tools, carve these multi-ton columns out of stone and decorate them with carvings? Plus, just getting them out of the quarry and placing them upright, in the absence of draft animals, requires at least 500 people. Such work required systematic efforts and a social hierarchy. For communities of gatherers and hunters, such a high level of social organization is not at all typical.
It remains to assume that the Göbekli-Tepe complex was inherited by the people of the Stone Age from some highly developed civilization. Perhaps it was an earthly civilization that perished as a result of a planetary cataclysm. Their surviving descendants, but having lost their knowledge and skills, having slipped into the Stone Age, began to use the structure as a temple - a place of worship for the gods who personified the forces of nature.
But why the structures of Göbekli Tepe were partially destroyed, many relief images were hewn away, and the whole complex was buried under a multi-meter layer of earth. Who did it and why? This mystery has haunted scientists for many years.
Researchers have established that the temple complex was covered with earth at the beginning of the VIII millennium BC. Based on the official theory of evolution, primitive people did not have the opportunity to do such a colossal job. And why?
It can be assumed that the temple was covered by its true creators in order to convey some important information to the future of humanity. Perhaps this information is contained in mysterious pictograms. It is likely that someday someone will read the ancient epistles of Göbekli Tepe. But first you need to dig up the whole complex. According to experts, it will take half a century to clear the entire Göbekli Tepe.
So so far no one knows what secrets Göbekli Tepe keeps in itself …
At the 42nd meeting of the World Heritage Committee, the Gebekli Tepe temple complex was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Author: Valentina Zhitanskaya
