The megalithic complex of Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia, between 9,000 and 12,000 years old

Göbekli Tepe in South-Eastern Anatolia is considered the oldest of the large megalithic structures in the world, its age estimated at 12 to 9 thousand years. The building of temples on this site began as early as the Mesolithic, which attests to the existence of a highly organised society in times that are usually characterised as the domain of hunter-gatherers with stone and bone tools.

The temple complex looks impressive: massive megalithic walls, columns and stelae, floors of burnt limestone, and a multitude of stone sculptures of animals, all arranged in the form of gigantic concentric circles with undoubted astronomical allusions.

The Göbekli Tepe complex was discovered in the middle of the twentieth century, but to date only a few per cent of the monument's total area has been explored. It is planned that scholars will need no less than 50 years for further excavations.