Gobekli Tepi located in southern Turkey was discovered by a farmer and has been undergoing excavations since 1995 by the German Archaeological Institute of Istanbul. Gobekli Tepi is the oldest known man-made religious structure and has been dated to 10,500 B.C. Currently only a small portion of this ancient site has been excavated. Researchers do know that the site was buried intentionally by man. Researchers speculate that the people who lived there buried it on purpose to protect it from some cataclysm, possibly the great floods mention in the Bible, or the melting of ice dams at the end of the last ice age, that may be one and the same.


The site of Gobekli Tepi has twenty round structures, which only four have been excavated. Located on top of a hill, each structure has two T-shape pillars located in the center of the circle and eight other pillars evenly distributed around the edge of each circle. The design of these structures reminds one of a combination of Stonehenge and the Anasazi Indian’s pit houses. Many of the pillars are decorated with pictograms and reliefs of various animals such as, lions, bulls, snakes, gazelles, and birds. Currently researchers believe that the people who built this site were hunter gatherers.  The discovery of this site pushes back the dating of the history of our civilization when historians previously believed we were living in caves at this period of time. It also puts forth the question that is there an epoch of our history that has been lost, just now being discovered? If you would like to learn more about this site watch the video provided. Also read the book Forgotten Civilization by Robert Schoch and visit his website, which gives good additional information. A link to his website is provided on the books and links page. 

image of gobekli tepi in turkey
image of a relief on a pillar at gobekli tepi
image of a pillar with carvings of animals on it at gobekli tepi
image of a pillar at gobekli tepi with carvings of various animals
image of pillar with star chart on it at gobekli tepi
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