What Is Göbekli Tepe Hiding? (I Got Special Access)

[00:00:00]Göbekli Tepe, the oldest structure in the world. It's around 12,000 years old.

[00:00:05]It has circular enclosures, massive stone megaliths, and more than 200 T-shaped pillars. It is 7,000 years older than the pyramids of Egypt, and 6,000 years older than Stonehenge in England. It is so ancient and massive that according to scientists, a place like this shouldn't have existed because around 12,000 years ago, humanity had not yet developed writing, worked with metal, or even invented the wheel. And yet here, the people often described as primitive cavemen raised stones weighing tons and carved strange symbols into them, symbols that still remain a mystery today. Visitors can only see Göbekli Tepe in Turkey from the elevated viewing platform. Access down into the site is never authorized, but we were given extraordinary permission to enter.

[00:00:52]Now, we are moving closer to the oldest structure ever uncovered here.

[00:00:56]>> Oh my god.

[00:00:59]As I go down, these pillars start to seem bigger.

[00:01:07]These are the oldest large-scale structures ever built by humans. I feel like I've traveled back in time. These [music] two massive pillars are 20 ft high, and they're 15 tons. They didn't have wheels. They didn't have domesticated animals. So, how did they bring these pillars here without breaking them? And how did they lift them up and put them in place like this?

[00:01:31]>> These are limestone, [music] calcium carbonate. Some were transported about 1,600 ft. They cut the stone along natural cracks in the bedrock and extracted the blocks.

[00:01:42]They may have used ropes to pull the stones over logs, or they may have rotated them across the ground step by step. With enough people, these stones could be moved. You can see the arms.

[00:01:52]They're bent at the elbows with the fingers on the front. Around the waist, there's a belt. From the front of the belt, what appears to be a fox skin hangs down over the body.

[00:02:02]>> These T-shaped [music] twin pillars are actually abstract representations of the human body.

[00:02:07]The horizontal part of the top represents the head, while the vertical shaft represents the body.

[00:02:12]Along the surrounding wall, stone seats face directly toward them. It seems this space was designed for people to gather around these pillars.

[00:02:20]>> Imagine being here almost 12,000 years ago, and imagine our ancestors sitting on these sites, maybe talking something [music] about their hunt or their loss.

[00:02:33]>> At the top, wooden beams stretched outward onto two central pillars to the shorter stones embedded in the wall.

[00:02:40]The entire structure was then covered with organic materials forming a conical roof.

[00:02:46]>> The sides of the structures were closed, which means people probably entered these mysterious spaces from above, climbing down through an opening in the roof.

[00:02:54]>> Every standing stone here is covered with carved depictions of animals.

[00:02:58]>> Is this a crab?

[00:02:59]>> Yes.

[00:03:00]>> Are these curved shapes snakes?

[00:03:03]>> Right here, you can see the bodies of the snakes [music] shown facing downward. The animals we encounter most frequently are foxes, wild boars, cranes, leopards, vultures, wild donkeys. This diversity reflects the animals that lived in this area. As you can see, there's a vulture holding a spear-like object in its hand. Over here, there's a headless human figure shown with an erection.

[00:03:27]>> How about that?

[00:03:28]>> It is said that the spear here is the missing head of the human figure over there. Is that correct?

[00:03:34]>> During this period, when people died, their skulls and bones were often removed and placed in special locations, >> [music] >> either in pits beneath houses or inside certain rooms.

[00:03:44]Here on the floor of this structure, you can see areas that were carved into the bedrock, opened, and later sealed off.

[00:03:51]>> The closed-off pits here were used as graves. These prehistoric people kept the remains of their dead very close to where they lived. And sometimes, skulls were even separated from the body and displayed openly on the walls. For them, these remains may have been seen as physical links to their deceased loved ones. By preserving the bones, they may have believed they were keeping the dead present in the world of the living. Now, we're moving to enclosure C.

[00:04:20]We're going to see one of the world's oldest sculptures up close.

[00:04:24]>> Look at this leopard. The size of its teeth is huge. If you look at it from this angle, it's like as if it's about to attack. Look at the paws. And it has a lot of muscles. And then you can see a wild boar beneath it. Maybe the wild boar is laying down and the leopard is on top of its prey. Maybe back then, leopards hunted a lot of animals.

[00:04:50]>> They had a very advanced sense of perspective.

[00:04:54]>> Most of these animals are erected and depicted in their most ferocious forms.

[00:04:58]It feels as if they're warning anyone who approaches these pillars.

[00:05:02]>> In fact, this was not a simple hunter-gatherer community, but a complex society made up of different groups and roles. There were storytellers and there were sculptors who turned those stories into carvings on the standing stones.

[00:05:14]>> [music] >> For 1,500 years, they were here. Then one day, they deliberately buried Göbeklitepe and abandoned it without leaving a single explanation behind. But why?

[00:05:26]>> We might think that these structures were given an identity. The construction of a building can be seen as its birth, >> [music] >> the renewal of its walls over time as its life cycle, and its final burial and abandonment as its death. If it had not been buried, it would inevitably have collapsed over time.

[00:05:43]>> Maybe they buried them for protection, like a time capsule.

[00:05:47]>> I agree. It's very likely that what they were preserving was not the building itself, but the memories created within it.

[00:05:54]>> In the past 30 years, only about 10% of Göbeklitepe has been unearthed.

[00:05:59]Excavating the rest could take centuries as every layer requires extreme precision. But this ancient world may reveal its secrets because just 22 miles away at another Neolithic site called Karahantepe, similar structures have already been discovered.

[00:06:15]>> Göbeklitepe is over there in the direction of those scattered trees.

[00:06:19][music] From this hilltop, you can see Göbeklitepe on a clear day. And naturally, they could see this place, too.

[00:06:26]>> So, these communities existed at the same time?

[00:06:29]>> Yes, we're talking about a very large and dense population. Today, nearly 800,000 square miles of land are used to grow grain. [music] This is where it all started. 1.5 billion cattle live on Earth, and they were first domesticated here. This land [music] changed the course of human history.

[00:06:46]This oval structure was carved directly into the bedrock and features [music] 11 stone figures symbolizing male fertility. As they carved out of the pit, they left these forms standing.

[00:06:56]>> So, this was planned in advance.

[00:06:58]>> They would enter the structure from there. After just two steps inside, they'd come face to face with this human figure. [music] It has sharp facial features, prominent lips, a cylindrical neck, and a triangular shape beneath the chin, almost like a beard. A headband is carved across its forehead. This must have represented someone important. On this side, there are steps at the far end, as well. We believe this may [music] have been an exit. The idea is that someone entered from one side and left from another. They may have gone through some kind of symbolic transformation. Whatever the function of this place, >> [music] >> it seems to have been a space where a ritual process took place.

[00:07:35]So, the male fertility [music] symbols, together with the ritual performed under someone's supervision, may have been connected to initiation.

[00:07:44]>> We're about to uncover the origins of one of humanity's greatest discoveries.

[00:07:49]As we continue forward, the round rooms gradually become oval.

[00:07:53]>> From here [music] on, we see these oval interconnected structures. What allows us to identify them as dwellings [music] is the artifacts found inside them.

[00:08:01]Let's move on and get a closer look.

[00:08:04]As we reach this slope, the floor plans [music] of the structures change with every step. The timeline shifts by centuries. This is the oldest known part [music] of Karahan Tepe.

[00:08:14]>> At this point, we begin to see rooms with corners. This is where humans first invented the corner, approximately 11,000 years ago.

[00:08:22]>> If you look closely, these are sharp corners. A rectangular floor plan was created here.

[00:08:27]>> Modern buildings are rectangular.

[00:08:29][music] Do the architectural forms we still use today first come from here?

[00:08:34]>> This is one of the most important discoveries in the history of [music] architecture. It is much easier to divide rectangular structures into functional spaces than [music] circular ones. Also, if the corners are strong, rectangular structures can be expanded to almost any size and can support much heavier roofs. But, in a circular structure without a central support, the roof is more likely to collapse.

[00:08:57][music] So, this method solves several challenges at once, dividing space, expanding the structure, [music] and enclosing larger areas. They built some of these structures on raised platforms [music] to keep the building safe from flood water and mud.

[00:09:11]Architectural solutions like windows and stairs may also have some of their earliest roots [music] in this region.

[00:09:17]>> Now we're entering the most recently discovered public area.

[00:09:20]>> I am at the center of the meeting point, [music] and it amazes me how large it is. Look at the capacity here.

[00:09:25]>> It feels like a scene from the distant past. This 8-ft tall figure is considered the oldest known life-size human statue ever discovered.

[00:09:33]>> He's holding his phallus.

[00:09:35]His hands are on both sides, and he's sitting on this side, maybe watching an event going on at center. Just imagine [music] and think what kind of events might have been taking place here. Maybe [music] there were celebrations or a very important meeting. Maybe they had a problem, a crisis and they gathered here to solve it.

[00:09:56]>> All of these stones were intentionally buried and left behind by the people who once used this place. Before the excavation, this entire area looked no different from the untouched land right beside it.

[00:10:08]>> Look at this huge [music] pillar. It's in the ground. You can understand it's a pillar from this third point.

[00:10:14]>> As we search for more of these massive monuments, we're also coming across the tools that made their construction possible.

[00:10:20]>> There are so many flint stones here.

[00:10:23]Look how sharp they are. These people may have used them to cut things, perhaps meat. They may also have attached them [music] to tips of their spears. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

[00:10:35]>> Just imagine how vast this area really is. There may be hundreds of them beneath our feet and they're all waiting to be explored.

[00:10:43]>> So, what made this place important enough to change everything we thought we knew about human history? What was uncovered on this land that forced history books to be rewritten? But before we answer that, I need to go back five years. I came here in 2021 and tried to enter Göbeklitepe, but back then, I couldn't get permission. This time, with support from Türkiye's Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, I fulfilled a long-held dream, entering these sites and sharing their secrets with the world. But this journey didn't only take me back 12,000 years. To truly understand this land, thousands of years are not enough. These lands hold humanity's oldest secrets and witnessed one of the largest mobilizations this country has ever seen. A mobilization so immense that after a tragedy affecting 14 million people, it continued day and night. On February 6th, 2023, one of the greatest disasters in modern Turkish history struck this region.

[00:11:40]>> I thought that was the end for all of us.

[00:11:43]>> On the same day, two devastating earthquakes measuring 7.7 and 7.6 struck southeastern Turkey, turning cities into ruins.

[00:11:51]>> How did you feel when you first saw your city after [music] the disaster?

[00:11:55]>> Well, everything was gone. Our memories, our childhood, the plans we'd made for the next day. [music] All of it had been destroyed.

[00:12:04]>> Can [clears throat] you describe the earthquake? What happened?

[00:12:06]>> It kept getting stronger and stronger.

[00:12:08]My wife said, "Hassan, this isn't going to stop."

[00:12:10]>> After that, a massive reconstruction process began. To see what has changed since that day, we are now in Kahramanmaraş, one of the cities hit hardest by the disaster.

[00:12:21]>> This is Ebrar Sites, one of the places where most people have lost their lives during earthquake. When the earthquake hit, 18 out of 22 blocks collapsed and more than 1,400 people died here. Today though, the same place looks very different. After the destruction, new earthquake-resistant homes were built and the apartments were given to the rightful owners.

[00:12:43]>> The reconstruction efforts were not limited to repairing damaged neighborhoods. In some places, entirely new residential areas were built from scratch.

[00:12:51]>> We are in İndere Valley in Adıyaman.

[00:12:53]There was once nothing here, but today, after impressive work completed in short period of [music] time, this place has been transformed into a large residential area where 16,000 new housing units have been built.

[00:13:06]>> [music] >> Now, I'm going to try to walk the entire town and let's see how much time it will take. Let's go.

[00:13:13]You can already see many buildings and people have started to live their lives here.

[00:13:20]>> Built on solid rocky ground, these structures were designed to be both sturdy and earthquake-resistant.

[00:13:26]Spanning 1,200 acres, the project feels less like a neighborhood and more like an entirely new city.

[00:13:33]>> It has been almost 12 minutes. I don't know how long we are going to walk.

[00:13:38]>> A newly built school here is getting ready to welcome its first students. The area also includes healthcare facilities, commercial spaces, and social amenities.

[00:13:47]>> Trying to [music] walk in a straight line and finish it is impossible. It has been 48 minutes and I'm ending it now.

[00:13:55]>> The disaster of the century caused widespread destruction across Hatay, damaging more than 55,000 buildings. The most severe destruction was in Antakya.

[00:14:05]For centuries, this town has been a multicultural city where voices from mosques, church bells, and Jewish prayers echoed side by side. Its historic heritage was severely damaged in the earthquake. Here stands the oldest known mosque in Anatolia. Its 1,400-year-old dome collapsed during the quake, but it was carefully restored and reopened its doors to visitors 3 years later. The same transformation is visible in the city center, where ruins have gradually given way to a new urban landscape.

[00:14:36]>> We are currently on Ataturk Avenue.

[00:14:38]After the February 6th earthquake, [music] this entire area was devastated. You could say it has now risen from the ashes. We have nearly 1,000 apartments here. All the buildings you see were built from scratch.

[00:14:50]>> Now, we're visiting the home of a family who survived the earthquake and suffered heavy losses.

[00:14:55]>> How did you feel [music] when you opened the door of your new home?

[00:14:59]>> We were incredibly happy.

[00:15:00]>> My wife and I both cried. The house is beautiful. We are truly grateful to everyone who built it.

[00:15:06]>> Across the earthquake zone, 455,000 homes and workplaces have been completed.

[00:15:12]>> [music] >> This mobilization, which began after the destruction, brought cities back to life and offered millions of people a safe and hopeful new beginning. Now, back to the question I asked earlier. What was uncovered at Göbeklitepe that forced history books to be rewritten? For years, the story we were told was this.

[00:15:31]Humans who survived only by hunting and gathering what they found in nature, one day discovered that if they planted seeds in the soil, the seeds would grow.

[00:15:38]In other words, [music] they invented agriculture. But in order to harvest what they had planted, they had to stay in the same [music] spot for a long time because crops needed time to mature. And so, people began to remain close to these [music] fields. And the first settled way of life was born this way.

[00:15:53]But Göbeklitepe changed [music] this old idea because here it was revealed that humans could come together and remain in the same area for long periods even before they discovered agriculture. This discovery showed that humanity may have first transitioned into settled life not to farm, but perhaps to perform [music] rituals. Rooms large enough to hold dozens of people, massive stone pillars standing at their centers, and symbols carved into those stones. All of these may be the earliest evidence of humanity's [music] transition into settled life.

[00:16:23]>> I became one of the very few documentary filmmakers permitted to enter the excavation areas of Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe. This was a dream of mine for a very long time. In our next documentary, we will raise the bar even higher. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss it. Ruhi Çenet was here.