Has Turkey found world's oldest temple?
A 12,000-year-old Stone Age temple discovered in southern Turkey is challenging conventional views on the rise of civilization.
The ancient city of Ephesus and the Diyarbakir Fortress and its surrounding Hevsel Gardens have become the latest historical sites in Turkey to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July. Turkey’s next nomination is the Stone Age cult site of Gobeklitepe, located in Sanliurfa province not far from the turbulent Syrian border.
The site’s discovery began with a coincidence reminiscent of a movie plot. In 1983, local farmer Mahmut Kilic found a carved stone while plowing his field in the village of Orencik. He took it to the Sanliurfa Museum, where it was to wait a decade for someone to recognize its importance. Visiting the museum in 1993, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt conducted tests on the stone, marking the beginning of a journey that took him 12 millennia back in history.
