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Karahan Tepe, or Karahantepe, is an archaeological site in Southeastern Anatolia. It’s quite possibly the world’s oldest known human village.
Introduction to Karahan Tepe
Karahan Tepe was first discovered in 1997. Excavations have revealed over 250 obelisks depicting animal figures. They were carved directly into the bedrock sometime between 9000 and 11000 BC, making the settlement older than nearby Göbekli Tepe.
Excavations are ongoing and the site is currently being developed for tourism. When I visited, there wasn’t a whole lot to see and very little information posted at the site, but it was a great opportunity to witness an active archaeological site. When archaeologists decipher some of the mysteries, I’ll come back and update this post.
Getting to Karahan Tepe
You’ll need your own transportation to get to the site, which sits within the Tek Tek Mountains National Park (Tek Tek Dağları Milli Parkı). If you don’t want to drive, you should be able to hire a taxi or private driver in Urfa, which is the nearest major city.
Visiting Karahan Tepe
Admission for foreigners is €3 (as of September 2024), but you can also get in with a valid ticket to Göbekli Tepe. During our visit, we didn’t have to pay a fee to enter and there was nobody at the site to enforce it. You’ll likely have the whole site to yourself as it’s still very much undiscovered. Check the official website for more info.
When we visited, it looked like the visitor center had just been completed but it wasn’t up and running. It was only possible to use the restrooms and a vending machine.
The path to the archaeological site starts at the visitor center. Once you pass a gate, it’s a slight uphill walk to the top. If you’re going in the summer, wear a hat, put on sunscreen, and take some water. Although it’s only a short path, it’s very hot and there’s no shelter.
Archaeological Site
The first section has a short boardwalk with an overlook of the main part of the site. It’s easy to make out the pits and see some of the obelisks. In one pit, there appears to be a cistern. If you look closely at the wall nearby, you’ll notice the faint remains of a snake etched into the rock.
Another pit has 10 phallic obelisks with an 11th representing a snake. If you look closely you can see the figure of a human head carved into the wall.
A bit further up we encountered a soldier in charge of security and the site manager. The site manager welcomed us and told us we could take photos, but the soldier followed us around and barked at us every time we took out our cameras. It was a little strange but we didn’t let him ruin our visit.
At the very top is the largest and possibly the most important pit unearthed so far. It contains a large figure with a phallus. This was also the area most active with archaeologists.
From there, we walked around the rest of the site back to the path leading to the visitor center. To be honest, without any information we didn’t get much out of our visit. The most exciting part was seeing an excavation in action. I imagine it’ll become much more developed at some point like Göbekli Tepe.
We visited Karahan Tepe in the morning and Göbekli Tepe in the afternoon. My advice is to visit Göbekli Tepe first. That way you’ll have a better understanding of Karahan Tepe.
