My Trip To Gobekli Tepe in Turkey

My Trip To Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, The important archaeological site of Golkepli Tepe, only discovered in the past 15 years, is also close to Urfa (about 15km away) and worth a visit, although excavations are still ongoing and far from complete.

Revealed so far are a collection of massive cleanly carved limestone pillars set into a ring with reliefs of gazelles, a scorpion, a snake, foxes and a ferociouslooking wild boar. What makes Golkepli Tepe so important is that the carvings date from 11,600 years ago, seven millennia before the great pyramids. As such, it is the first known example of human monumental architecture in the world. At that time, no writing, metal or pottery existed, and the wheel had still to be invented. So, the fact that these 16-ton slabs of stone could have been cut, transported and assembled at Golkepli Tepe is an amazing achievement for the small largely nomadic tribes that would have inhabited the area at the time.

I also used Urfa as a base for visiting one of eastern Turkey’s most iconic historical sites, Mount Nemrut (Nimrod), in Mount Nemrut National Park, about 150km north of Urfa. On the way to Mount Nemrut an interesting short diversion is to pay a call at the impressive Atatürk Dam, the fourth-largest in the world. Apart from producing hydro-electric power for the region, the dam, completed in 1990, has also transformed the surrounding areas into fertile farming areas, visibly green with wheat fields, and pistachio and olive groves. The lake created by the dam, Lake Atatürk, is Turkey’s third-largest lake and provides an important source of fish for surrounding towns and villages. The peak of Mount Nemrut has today become one of Turkey’s most enigmatic symbols, with its stunning scenery, mystical statues and the ancient delusions of grandeur that led to the building of the mountain-top temples. Mount Nemrut rises to a height of 2,150 metres, and what is astonishing is that no one knew anything about what was up there until 1881, when a German engineer employed by the Ottomans came across the statues while surveying for transport routes. Even then, archaeological work didn’t start until 1953. It turns out that the summit of the mountain was created by a megalomaniac local king, Antiochus I Epiphanes, who reigned from 64 to 36 BC. King Antiochus cut two ledges, one facing east and the other facing west, and filled them with colossal statues of himself and the gods (his relatives, or so he thought). He then ordered the creation of an artificial mountain summit of crushed rock between the two ledges, which rises a further 50 metres above the statues. It’s thought that the king’s burial tomb may lie beneath the tons of crushed rock. Earthquakes since then have toppled the heads, which although now upright, rest at the base of the 2-metre-high seated bodies at the back of each ledge. They are quite an amazing sight, and contemplating them and their creator is one of the highlights of any trip to this Mesopotamian corner of Anatolia.
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