Gobekli Tepe. Part 1

Mad dogs and Englishmen!

June 2024

I like sunny days!

I know some people would rather be cool than warm and I get that but for me, give me the Sun any day of the week!

In spite of that I’d carefully planned my departure date and route to ensure that I avoided the hottest countries in the hottest months. I always knew that the climate would be my biggest challenge and with the potential non availability of drinking water for days on my original route I was ready for night travel to avoid the brutal mid day sun.

What am I talking about “mid day” sun? On my first day in Şalniurfa I was taken by surprise at how quickly the mercury reached 40℃. At 9.45 AM my phone was telling me we had already reached that milestone! It usually wasn’t until sunset that a slight cool down occurred.

As I mentioned in part 1 of Simunye! We are One. Ancient Stones to African Shores though, most  of my plans had gone distinctly out of the window so I arrived in Turkey at the height of summer. 

In a heat wave.

And followed the heat wave south!

I was going to get used to sleeping in 30℃ !

My skin was still relatively pale as well so I was extremely conscious of using a sun screen, wearing long sleeves, covering my head and carrying plenty of drinking water as well as one of my water purifying systems.

All in all I felt well prepared for the climate and as I left the Nomad Inn on this June  morning, all I could think about was my destination. 

Gobekli Tepe.

I know that at one time it was possible to make your own way to the ancient site. Unsurprisingly when I asked at the tourist police office opposite the Pools of Abraham I was told that I needed to catch bus No. 0. The bus leaves three times a day and drops visitors about 5km from the entrance to the site. From there a  minibus will take you to the car park.

I asked about making my own way there and was met with a curt, “Bus No.0. The war”.

There isn't a lot you can say to that really. I knew from the number of roadblocks I’d seen on the highway between the airport and the inn that there was a high police and army presence in the area so the chances of sneaking past were virtually nil!

At this point I still hadn't been warned by the Turkish army not to enter the 30km no-go zone set up along the entire length of Turkey’s border with Syria and was still planning to start the walk within a week or so along the E90 heading East to Karahan Tepe. The 13500 year old so called sister site to today’s, better known location.

I didn't see it being a problem and saw it as an opportunity to check out the first part of my route. 

Google maps told me that there was a public camp site just off the E90 and I had hoped to check it out prior to arriving but realistically, if that was the only camp site, it would be just perfect!

More of the logistics later, for now I was as excited as I’d been in a long time. Today I was finally going to experience a megalithic site for myself.

The legendary T-Pillars of pot belly hill.

Already standing waiting at the bus stop were a couple of Turkish families, a Russian couple and,to my surprise, a young man from Manchester. 

We got chatting and I learned that Martin worked for the NHS as an IT boffin. He had taken 6 months off work to travel to some of the Islamic world’s most Holy sites. As a convert to Islam he was on his own pilgrimage. 

Ten minutes later, as the modern Bus No.0 had arrived, it was hot! 

As Robin Williams’ character said in Good morning Vietnam, it was “damn hot”.

Stepping into the air conditioned bus felt like heaven and Martin pointed out that it was going to be even hotter in the mountains. I reassured him that the site was covered so there should be some shade.

The bus ride took about 40 minutes and we were quickly grabbing our day bags and heading for the back of an approximately 500 metre long queue. The queue wasn't covered at all so Martin and I took turns queueing while the other found some shade. There is a fairly good restaurant / cafe at the visitor centre.

Turkey’s day of democracy and national unity had just passed and it seemed that many Turkish people had taken annual leave to coincide with the public holiday and chosen to visit the historic site at the same time as me. On top of that, three coaches of Chinese tourists had arrived just before us so the site was very crowded.

In spite of that, even with the extra security check, it only took about 20 minutes and we had passed through the barrier and were presented with the choice of walking the last 1km to the start of the covered walkway or catching a ride in a tuk tuk.

Martin said he wanted to walk so the two of us set off up the last short stretch of paced road and were able to fully appreciate the sheer scale of the place.

The walkway surrounding enclosure D, site of the famous pillar 43, better known as The Vulture Stone, were heaving. Eighty percent of the visitors on that all headed to look at the famous, carved stone as soon as they arrived so I headed off to start at enclosure A where I was able to get a really good luck at this incredible and by no means fully understood, 11500 year old site.

11500 years old hey?

Here is where mainstream and I fall out.

The date of 11500 years old comes from carbon dating of organic materials like charcoal, plaster and paint that were uncovered when the circular / oval enclosures were methodically cleared of the tonnes of earth that had been used to deliberately fill in the site.

That method does not date the site. It tells us that 11500 years ago Gobekli Tepe was inhabited by what we would class as an advanced society.

It’s the same when Ballbek is called a roman site. Yes the Romans occupied the site for a time but they did not construct the original site which, still unexcavated, is believed to have been inhabited by the early Phoenicians as far back as 9000BC!  

It appears to me that rather than looking for evidence to challenge what we believe, mainstream archeology and academia, look for any evidence to back up their story.

Any challenge to the established view that the first advanced civilization on Earth began around 6500 years ago with Sumer is met with outrage by the establishment. 

Thankfully, the technology needed to examine the evidence of an earlier, advanced society is becoming more and more readily available to independent researchers and all across the planet, the timeline of human history is being pushed back.

For now though, Gobekli Tepe is accepted as being at least 9500 years old and the people living there then practised art for artistic purposes This almost certainly indicates a level of society that has developed worship, culture and a hierarchy. Added to this evidence that shows the builders had advanced astrological knowledge, tells us that 9500 years ago, Gobekli Tepe was part of an established, advanced civilisation.

A good 4500 years before Sumer.

In the next section I will tell you how, later that day, I almost died from heat stroke!