Gobeklitepe

Gobeklitepe is the world's oldest known temple complex, dating back 12,000 years to the pre-pottery Neolithic period, a record that outranks all other archaeological sites in Turkey. Excavations have revealed 20 circular enclosures supported by massive T-shaped limestone pillars, each weighing up to 20 tons, carved with depictions of wild animals like foxes and scorpions. This site predates Stonehenge by over 6,000 years, making it more than twice as ancient as Divriği Great Mosque's 13th-century origins. Its construction required the coordinated labor of hundreds of people, a feat that challenges the conventional timeline for when hunter-gatherers formed complex societies. Ongoing digs since 1995 have uncovered only 5% of the total area, suggesting the temple's scale is four times larger than currently exposed.