Göbekli

Göbekli is a Turkish toponym meaning "navel" or "belly," and is used in several place names. The best-known example is Göbekli Tepe, a prehistoric archaeological site near Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey. The hill at Göbekli Tepe rises about 15 meters above the plain, and the site contains monumental stone structures dating to the late Epipaleolithic and early Neolithic periods, roughly 9600 to 8000 BCE.

Archaeological excavations led by German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt from the 1990s uncovered a series of circular and semicircular enclosures whose central features are T-shaped limestone pillars, some up to around 6 meters high, arranged in rings. Many pillars bear carved reliefs of wild animals and abstract symbols. The architecture, the scale of the monuments, and the absence of permanent domestic structures indicate non-residential ritual use rather than a settled town.

Göbekli Tepe is significant because it challenges traditional models of the Neolithic Revolution by suggesting that complex social organization and large-scale monumental construction arose among hunter-gatherers before full-scale farming. The site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. Conservation and research continue, with a modern visitor center and ongoing excavations that aim to understand its function and the societies that built it.