At the dawn of his career, in 1963, the young archaeologist Peter Benedict went to excavations in Turkey. After examining a number of mounds there, one of which was called Göbekli-Tepe (Pot-bellied Hill), he assumed by their appearance that he was dealing with the Byzantine era and did not become particularly worried. It was not his profile to excavate the burials of the cataphracts, so Benedict, confining himself to a verbal description of the mounds, left for Africa.
More than 30 years have passed and the staff of the German Institute of Archeology with their colleagues from Turkey began excavations, hoping to find the burial of the Byzantines. Imagine their surprise when, instead of 8th century trinkets, they discovered a temple complex that did not belong to any of the known cultures.
Klaus Schmidt, the team leader, sent rock samples for radiocarbon analysis, but even without any analysis, it was clear that the find was no less than eight thousand years old. The excavations lasted over 15 years. Despite the insignificant amount of excavated soil, there was a very serious explanation for this: scientists were faced with such a unique phenomenon that any rush that could lead to damage to objects was inappropriate.
What did the researchers find? At the lowest level of the excavation, four similar round-shaped complexes were found, with T-shaped columns, decorated with stone carvings, depicting various animals and cult scenes, located along the perimeter. The height of individual columns reached 9 meters. The age of the monument, according to physicists, was about 12 thousand years. It was the first cult building of mankind, about 5 thousand years older than the oldest megalithic temple located in Malta. Stonehenge and the pyramids at Giza are generally babies compared to the temple at Göbekli Tepe.
The most mysterious thing in this whole story was that scientists did not know any of the possible cultures that would use these buildings. Thus, the opening of the temple complex posed two mysteries to historians at once: what is it and who did it?
Indeed, it was difficult to find at least some people who not only used this building, but even lived in this area. At that time, all the centers of nascent civilizations were located either south or northwest of Göbekli Tepe.
Various versions have been expressed on this matter. Someone believed that the inhabitants of this area were the descendants of the Natufians, one of the first cultures to master agriculture. There were opinions that the inhabitants who built the temple came from the eastern regions of Central Asia. Moreover, a theory was even put forward, according to which the entire population of Europe did not come from the then inhabitants of the Volga region (the modern, canonical hypothesis, called "Kurgan"), but from the inhabitants of the area where Göbekli Tepe was located. The latter began to be called the "Anatolian hypothesis" and is now considered as an alternative to Kurgan. But all of them did not give an answer to the question: who were these people.
However, the most interesting thing awaited archaeologists in a few years. In 1998, several similar structures were discovered. In a couple of years, eight more were found; they were all located around the city of Harran. The area around Harran is a kind of oasis, about 10 km in diameter and six such structures were geometrically correctly located along the perimeter of this oasis. In the center of each of them was a free-standing column, oriented exactly towards Harran.
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What kind of city was it? Its name translates as "fork" or "crossroads". Officially, its history is about three thousand years old, however, there is evidence that it existed much earlier than this period. In addition, Harran is known from the Bible and many other sources as the birthplace of Abraham. The same Abraham who "gave birth to Isaac"; the biblical patriarch, who lived for over 200 years and, in fact, the first person to whom God gave new knowledge.
Information about many historical figures of that time has come down to us in the form of scraps of various myths, legends, sacred texts. They often violate both the chronological sequence and the names of places or persons, but the main thing almost always remains unchanged.
Analyzing the personality of Abraham and his deeds, we can say the following: he was a wealthy man who lived in his city an ordinary, measured life. And then, all of a sudden, he with his family and his servants suddenly takes off and begins to travel around the neighboring countries and engage in some kind of activity. Moreover, he does not just travel, but meets with the rulers of these countries. At the end of the journey, he returns home, finds a wife for his son and dies. This is how the Bible describes Abraham's actions.
But among the Jewish traditions, not all were included in the canonical version of the Bible. There are many apocrypha, the contents of which did not fall into it, however, they have the same origin and can be considered as a source identical to the Bible. Two of them, namely The Revelation of Abraham and The Death of Abraham, detail Abraham's actions before and after the trip. The second apocryphal is especially interesting; it describes how Abraham traveled through the sky, where he met many famous characters: from Enoch, one of the first "space travelers", to Adam, the first man on earth.
All of the above allowed Alan Rizmakher to create a very interesting hypothesis explaining who Abraham was, and what the ancient structure was like, like the Pot-bellied Hill. According to Rizmacher, Abraham lived much earlier than the Bible describes it. The time of his life approximately coincided with the time of construction of Göbekli Tepe.
Actually, it was from this time that humanity began to develop as a settled civilization. It was then that the final transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture took place in the form in which we imagine it. But it did not take place independently, but under the direct control of some civilization of unearthly origin. And people like Araham, who lived in the area that would later be called Harran, were the very carriers and conductors of this knowledge. If you look at the problem from this angle, then the words "patriarch" and "crossroads" in relation to a person and a city sound very symbolic.
Abraham was the leader of the information dissemination project, and his family and servants were simply subordinates, carrying out an important task of teaching the Aborigines new knowledge. And this was very important, since the so-called "Younger Dryas" was approaching - the last of the stages of the Ice Age, which could put humanity on the brink of extinction. The knowledge transmitted to humanity by Abraham and his group helped our ancestors to overcome this difficult stage …
And what is Göbekli Tepe? What is this structure and several others similar to it located near Harran? Most likely, this is part of some kind of communication complex through which communication was carried out between Abraham and those who sent him to Earth.
Rizmacher's hypothesis is too bold and radical; it can take a long time to confirm it. According to Schmidt's calculations, excavations on the ancient hill will continue for about 50 years. What new will be revealed to mankind as a result of the analysis of its most ancient structure? Nobody can say this yet. It is quite possible that Rizmacher's hypothesis will be confirmed.
