The oldest temple on earth — 12,000-year-old T-shaped pillars carved by hunter-gatherers who should not have been able to build this
Göbeklitepe ('Potbelly Hill' in Turkish) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site 15km northeast of Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey and the oldest known temple complex in the world, built by hunter-gatherers approximately 12,000 years ago — 7,000 years before the invention of writing, 6,000 years before Stonehenge, and 7,000 years before the wheel. The site consists of at least 20 circular stone enclosures (only 5 excavated by 2024) with pairs of massive T-shaped limestone pillars (up to 5.5m tall, 15 tonnes) carved with bas-reliefs of animals — foxes, snakes, wild boar, cranes, ducks, scorpions, spi…
Göbeklitepe was used as a sacred site from approximately 10,000 BCE and deliberately buried (the enclosures were intentionally backfilled with stone rubble) around 8,000 BCE — the reason for the burial is unknown. The site was discovered in 1994 by German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute, who excavated it until his death in 2014. The UNESCO designation was conferred in 2018. Excavation continues; the unexcavated portions are expected to contain structures older and larger than those already exposed.