Gobekli, Turkey

Place:  Gobekli, Turkey, located in the village of Urfa in southeastern Turkey.  Today it is dry, however in 9000 B.C.E it was a lush forest!

Gobekli Tepe- Location
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Introduction:  "Gobekli Tepe" is one of four famous stone circles.  It is a place, rather temple, that is thought to serve ritual purposes, as well as a gathering place.  It is often a place that is the main place that the community (or communities gather)  Other similar stone structures are the well known Stonehenge, Nabta Playa, and Niuheliang, all serving as ritual centers.

Structure:  There are stone walls creating several circles.  and all of them have monolithic pillars made of limestone, that measure up to three meters tall.  The floors are made of burnished lime, that looks similar to concrete.

Gobekli Tepe, Today
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Gobekli Tepe, Entire Layout
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The pillars have beautiful, extremely detailed pictures of several animals carved into them.  This proves the craftsmanship before metal working tools were even available.  Some of the things they were able to do then are baffling even to much more evolved people of today.

Monolithic Precisions
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Interesting fact:  In 4000 B.C.E Gobekli's latest inhabitants abandoned the site but made sure to fill it with earth!  Although there may be some theories floating around, no one is exactly sure why they did this!  However, it may be a reason why Gobekli Tepe is still preserved today.

Gobekli, Today
smithsonianmag.com

NABTA PLAYA:
Nabta Playa is located in Southern Egypt and is another ritual/gathering center.  Like Gobekli Tepi, it dates all the way back to 9000 B.C.E.

Purpose:  The purpose of the stone structure was to organize time according to the seasons, as well as to understand the motion of the sun, and the constellation Orion.

Nabta Playa, Stone Circle
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Constellation Orion (our group name!)
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Comparison to Stonehenge:  Both structures are used to organize the seasons, as well as both are nearly perfect maps of the constellations.  This shows that people then were able to track the stars and seasons and understand them, which probably took centuries to learn.
Interestingly, although Stonehenge is more known, it did not come until 4,500 years later!  However, Nabta Playa is smaller, and less extreme.

Stonehenge, England
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My outlook on Stone circles:  They scare me.  With the hearths and numerous remains that are found at these sites all I can think about is how they sacrifice animals and probably people to "Gods".  It takes away from the beauty of it.  I also think they were built as monuments so that their gods could see them from high above- but really it's the aliens who are going to see them- Great.

However, if I shake those views from my mind it's absolutely fascinating that they would think to utilize such difficult materials and know how to align them so perfectly, and I wish people today would want to make our own more sophisticated/mysterious stone circles!