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It has remains from the Byzantine and Islamic times. The walls were built in AD by the Christians to defend the city against Arab raids. The outer fortress was enlarged and restored by the Crusaders. The palaces of Molla, Gezer Pasha and Mehmet Pasha known to exist between the citadel and the outer fortress could not survive to our times. Tek Tek mountains are located about 45 km east of the city to the direction of Viransehir.
The area became a national park in and has several caves and ancient sites to visit. It was settled by the Syriac in the first and second centuries AD. Sogmatar was the culture centre of Sabiism which had its origin in Harran Sin culture and Marilaha the supreme god.
Important remains include an open air temple where planets and the supreme god were worshipped and sacrifices were made. Walls of the temple have inscriptions in Syriac and relief describing planets.
These also exist on the surface of rocks standing on a hill to the west of the fortress. The city of Suayb consists of historical ruins standing in Ozkent village at a distance of 88 kilometers to Sanliurfa. Extending over a large area, the city dates back to the time of the Romans and once surrounded by walls. People believe that the holy Suayb lived here. There is also a cave visited by people as the quarters of Suayb. Nevali Cori ancient settlement is near Kantara village of Hilvan, on the right bank of the Euphrates Firat river. The remains are located on a calcareous hill and cover an area meters long and 50 meters wide, bordered by two brooks.
Göbekli Tepe is an archaeological site in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey approximately 12 km (7 mi) northeast of the city of Şanlıurfa. The tell (artificial mound) has a height of 15 m (50 ft) and is about m Göbekli Tepe, www.padam.hu They are near the quarries of classical times, making their dating difficult. Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa is a city with a population of over 2 million residents in southeastern Turkey, and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is a multiethnic city with a Turkish, Kurdish and Arab population. The Temple of Nevali Çori – Neolithic settlement dating back to BCE, now buried under the waters.
The ancient settlement reflects the historical period in which settled life was starting and people were hunting while they tried to domesticate plants and animals. Existence of many stone structures that could have been used as storage, cult structure and pieces of art all indicate that Nevali Cori used to be a central settlement of these times.
Lately, one of the most important archaeological sites nearby Urfa is Gobeklitepe which changed everything we knew about the Stone Age people. To put it more correctly, findings belong to the Calcolitic age which correspond to these dates. The excavation of the tumulus was conducted in by a team headed by Adnan Misir, the Director of the Museum. The excavation work was financed by voluntary organizations from US and participated by Dr. Patrick Wattenmarker from the University of Pennsylvania.
Excavations revealed architectural pieces, houses, streets and other articles are exhibited at the museum. There is a water storage at the top of the tumulus. Another finding is an alphabet which translates the Sumerian language into Akad language. This alphabet was purchased from a farmer and it is now in Ankara.
International Herald Tribune spared a wide space to Kazana in its issue dated 11 November The archaeological museum of Urfa has been recently renewed and opened to public.
On its 3 levels there are several displays with findings and artifacts from Paleolitic, Neolitic and Calcolitic periods, Bronze and Iron Ages, Hellenistic, Roman and Bizantine periods, and Islamic era. There is also a section for Prophets. Other interesting sections of the museum are Gobeklitepe hall and Nevali Cori hall. Next to the archaeological museum there is another museum of the ancient villa with Haleplibahce mosaics.
About 45 kilometers 28 miles south of Sanliurfa there is the ancient site of Harran, one of the most interesting villages in the region for its history and with its mudbrick dwellings.
One of the controversial aspects regarding the debate of the site is that of the motivation of the people who built it. Was it a place of congregation? If so, what was the purpose? A project of this scale leaves for a lot to be desired and a huge amount of interest for what still remains to be discovered as the current understandings of adaptation 11, years ago do not adequately fit the bill.
We do however know a lot contextual information that could help solve the mystery, or possibly cause more controversy, such as the time and place coinciding with the end of the Ice age called the Younger Dryas , as well as the very beginning of Agriculture. Geography, Implications of findings Situated in the Germush mountains at relatively high altitudes between the ancient Mesopotamian rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the foothills of the Taurus mountains, Gobekli Tepe gets its name from the unique characteristic of an artificial mound atop a natural limestone plateau giving it its distinct shape which first caught the eye of Professor Schmidt.
The dig-site consists of 3 levels in-depth, the oldest and deepest pertaining to circular or oval enclaves, built of an average of T-shaped pillar stones, surrounding the common characteristic of 2 larger free-standing central columns also called megaliths, which are intricately decorated and carved out of huge limestone blocks. The surrounding pillars as well as the central megalithic pillars, intriguingly are all T-shaped, with carvings depicting arms and fingers on flat-reliefs, making them human-like.
The pillars get their T-shape from huge headstones with small indents for eyes , weighing up to 15 tons which sit atop the pillars underneath them which weigh twice or even up to four times as heavy up to 60 tons. The constructs are thought to be depicting highly stylized but human-like, supernatural beings that Klaus Schmidt has described to be taking the shape of humans; in other words the first religious monuments. The symbolism of these T-shaped pillars represents the oldest statues ever found. With an expected 50 years left of excavation left to unearth the entire site, many mysteries are left to be uncovered.
The region plays an important role in deciphering the cultural significance and meaning of such a discovery for the global community, as neighbouring archaeological sites such as Catalhoyuk in southern Anatolia BC to BC pertained to a similar architectural style albeit much younger.
Comparable properties include Jerf el Ahmar in modern-day Egypt , Nevali Cori also situated in Sanliurfa province and famous for monumental sculptures and Cayonu Neolithic settlement in southeastern Turkey inhabited between BC to BC none of which rival Gobekli Tepe in size and scale. A Shocking and Groundbreaking discovery The controversial debate stems from the belief that at this point in time for evolution, Homo Sapiens were not yet capable of the division of labour, and societal organization necessary for the task.
The question is are the historic definitions of evolution not giving the people of that time the credit they deserve? Perhaps they had the ability to produce monumental constructs way before we believed they could, and this means they had the technologies, tools and techniques necessary to do so. Ground-penetrating radar has mapped hundreds of megalithic pillars still underground, that makes progress thus far just the tip of the iceberg. This could be the largest megalithic site ever created on Earth! The established norm before this astounding discovery was that megalithic structures existed no later than thousand years ago, in places like the Easter Islands, Malta and the Stonehenge which previously held the record.
Gobekli Tepe sets the bar when it appears suddenly over 6, years older than all of the above and dwarfs them in size, creating a huge amount of interest, quite understandably. The two outstanding theories are; one that our understanding of hunter-gatherers is wrong, or two, and this is the more interesting one, that there is an entirely new civilization that is emerging that we had no idea about.
There are many ongoing hypotheses yet to be disproven, including that it could be the location of the garden of Eden referred to in the Bible. There even exists a mainstream theory that proclaims this could even be the work of extraterrestrial beings or aliens! In any case, all the evidence is pointing towards this being the very beginning of the inquiry, as similar T-shaped pillars are popping up all over Turkey from farmers backyards to remote arid plains, and seem to be connected somehow to each other.
Only time will tell the answer to these mysteries, as the research teams at Gobekli Tepe piece the evidence together. Potentially the birthplace of Innovation Moreover, there are numerous intriguing revelations that have already come up from the work of Klaus Schmidt and his team. Some of these include interesting astronomical alignments, stone circles, the world's first north-south aligned buildings, and the first site of worship impressive reputation.
An important aspect of Gobekli Tepe is the meaning derived from the implied cultural, social and communal integrity that was required to erect such monumental architecture. This, says Schmidt, has far-reaching consequences into the development of the human brain, in particular in relation to its size.
As we transitioned from a hunter-gatherer subsistence way of life to a farming or agricultural way of life, through a scientific term for becoming food-producers called Neolithisation our brains and social patterns had to adapt in tandem. Due to the complexity and effort of organized social behaviour, our brains evolved to maintain the capabilities to function in hierarchical and structured societies that function on the basic principle of shared beliefs and accepted norms.
Being an area of high biodiversity, the ancient land must have been full of natural competition from competing tribes, and full of dangerous predators which are also richly depicted on the monolithic pillars and walls. Schmidt referred to the site as the first evidence of consistent organized and unnecessary effort, in other words, effort not related to survival and pertaining more to the abstract realm of art and mythology.
This is seen in the large array of up to 50 different animal species including notable significance attributed to dangerous predatory animals that are often depicted in aggressive stances. Some such animals include; panthers, arthropods scorpions , large birds of prey eagles, aurochs and condors , bears, wild boar and hyenas.
Apart from animal symbology, portraits thought to contain mixed meanings can be found on some of the walls there, that in one instance showed a large bird devouring the sun, and in another a large bird eating a snake.