Göbeklitepe, one of the world’s most important Neolithic Age settlements, hosted 567,453 people in 2021, reaching the highest number of visitors in its modern history. The site has been inundated by local and foreign tourists since 2018, when it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List and became accessible to visitors. Göbeklitepe is expected to draw even more visitors in 2022.
Located 15 kilometres northeast of Şanlıurfa, near Örencik village, Göbeklitepe has attracted local and foreign visitors since its discovery. The the11,500-year-old Göbeklitepe site, which is home to the world’s oldest religious monuments, was visited by a total of 567,453 people in 2021, breaking previous visitor records despite the effects of the pandemic.
Göbeklitepe was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2018,and the findings at the site offered dramatic new knowledge regarding the Neolithic Age. Interest in Göbeklitepe is expected to rise, with the Centre anticipated to host a record number of visitors in 2022.
A Brand-New Look at the Neolithic Age: Göbeklitepe
With a history dating to 9600 BCE, Göbeklitepe changed the narrative on Neolithic Era hunter-gatherer communities. Göbeklitepe, built tens of centuries prior tothe invention of writing and the wheel, 7,100 years before the Egyptian Pyramids and 6,100 years before Stonehenge, revealed evidence indicating that hunter-gatherer societies were more advanced than previously thought.
The T-shaped obelisks at Göbeklitepe, reaching up to 5.5 metres, 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 a belief centre. 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 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.
