Gobekli Tepe

 

Not far from Karahan Tepe is the world famous site of Gobekli Tepe. It is dated to between 9500 BC to 8000 BC when the site was deliberately buried.  These were hunter/gatherer people of the pre pottery neolithic era.  Excavations were started in 1994, but there is still much left to excavate.  When I was there in 2018, there was a large grove of olive trees nearby, which has recently been removed because the roots were growing down into an area earmarked for future excavation.  

This was our next to the last day of the trip, and I had been really hoping that we did not have our daily screw up, which for me, was on one of my most important days.  Alas, this was not to be.  Our guide, Emre, had not given us enough time at Karahan Tepe.  It turns out that he was supposed to book private time for our group at Gobekli Tepe after the site closed at 5:30 PM, but neglected to do so.  He wanted to get us there by about 4:30 so we didn’t miss out altogether.  Unfortunately, Patricia did not find out that we didn’t have the private time until we actually got there.  The visitor center had already closed, and we had just enough time to walk around.

Nevertheless, it was a very impactful visit for me, as it had been in 2018.  On this visit, as was the case in 2018, I felt like I was walking in slow motion through very thick air.  There is a huge and powerful vortex there that one experiences when walking around the walkway while looking down at the main enclosures. 

I must back up.  That morning, when we visited the Sanliurfa Museum, we got to see the exhibit of reproductions of the main parts of the site.  It was nice to see that before actually visiting Gobekli Tepe in its natural form, where many of the carved depictions of animals and symbols are really hard to see.  Here are some photos from the museum.

Back to the site as the late afternoon sun was casting shadows.  I have enhanced some of the photos below so that you can see the rock art. 

Even though there is a lot to see here, they are still excavating the surrounding area.  We saw walkways that were not accessible to us leading off in several directions away from the main site. I was so happy to be able to return here, as this might be my last time.  It is truly one of the great wonders of the world.