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Photo: Teomancimit, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Village from 9000 BCE, the world’s oldest and a . It’s from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic when humans made the transition from hunter-gather to settled agriculture. Several megaliths appear to have had ritual use, which would make them the oldest known temple. The site is fairly small so an hour will see you back on the bus to city centre.
Göbekli Tepe is a Neolithic archaeological site in Upper Mesopotamia (al-Jazira) in modern-day Turkey. The settlement was inhabited from around 9500 BCE to at least 8000 BCE, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is known for its large circular structures that contain large stone pillars – among the world's oldest known megaliths. Many of these pillars are decorated with anthropomorphic details, clothing, and sculptural reliefs of wild animals, providing archaeologists with insights into prehistoric religion and the iconography of the period. The 15 m (50 ft) high, 8 ha (20-acre) tell is covered with ancient domestic structures and other small buildings, quarries, and stone-cut cisterns from the Neolithic, as well as traces of activity from later periods.
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This has existed since at least the 2nd century BC, with newer walls from 814 AD. Not much within and it’s been closed for repairs for years. It’s worth walking up to the terrace below the entrance, especially at sundown as the colours of dusk flood the old town and the evening call to prayer echoes over the alleys.