The researchers have since tried their best to restore Gobekli Tepe's pillars to their original locations, but the initial layout of the site's stunning round buildings remains up for debate. Furthermore, later civilizations in the area - and, more recently, farmers - have rearranged portions of certain pillars, even breaking pieces off. According to them, while the archaeological site is remarkably well preserved, the forces of time have changed the location of certain features.įor example, studies suggest some of the pillars were removed and recycled elsewhere. However, those claims of Gobekli Tepe's connection to the night sky have been largely rejected by the main team actual excavating the temple. If either of those things are true, Gobekli Tepe’s extreme age would indeed make it the world’s oldest known astronomical site. Another claims that carvings at Gobekli Tepe record a comet impact that hit Earth at the end of the Ice Age. One suggests that the site was aligned with the night sky, particularly the star Sirius, because the local people worshiped the star like other cultures in the region did thousands of years later.
There are two major claims that those who think Gobekli Tepe had celestial connections point to. Some scientists, primarily those not connected to the core group excavating the site, have speculated that Gobekli Tepe was actually an astronomical observatory, or perhaps even the biblical Garden of Eden. It’s been the subject of widespread, and often breathless, press coverage and documentaries, as well as countless conspiracy theories, from aliens to fantastical claims about ancient, technologically advanced civilizations. Gobekli Tepe’s design and age have captured the public’s imagination for decades. But despite all those years of research, they're still working to unravel the site’s biggest mysteries: Who built it, and why? World’s first observatory? However, because the ancient temple is so vast and complex, archaeologists have been busy excavating it since its discovery in 1994.Īlong the way, they’ve uncovered strange animal carvings, towering stone pillars, and the earliest known evidence of megalithic rituals. The site, called Gobekli Tepe, was built roughly 12,000 years ago, with some parts appearing to be even older. Earth's Northern Hemisphere was covered in enormous Ice Age glaciers when a group of hunter-gatherers in southern Turkey began constructing the world’s first known temple.
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