At Gobekli Tepe, built by hunters and gatherers, is situated on the highest point on the mountain range delimiting the Harran valley to the north.
Gobekli Tepe confronts us with features, which do not fit into the models and theories developed so far by archaeologists for the beginning of the Neolithic. Nobody would have expected monumental architecture combined with a rich repertoire of images hinting at a highly developed symbolic world at the moment of the transition from foragers to sedentary, food producing societies.
About 12.000 years ago Gobekli Tepe was chosen as a place for monumental enclosures and sculptures, as a central place not for residential buildings and everyday life but for buildings associated with cult and ritual. Roughly 20 of these special buildings of round or oval shape with diameters around 30 m can be located in the mound. Six enclosures were excavated so far, the being attested by geophysical surveys.
To see more detail and the source information accompanied by some excellent photographs of Gobekli Tepe – click here Şanlıurfa Valiliği.