#wonder of the day: Göbeckli Tepe

Up until the 1990s it was thought the oldest megalithic structure on earth was probably the temples on the island of Malta which are believed to be around 6000 years old.

But Klaus Schmidt changed all that when he excavated a previously discovered, but not properly understood, site of Göbeckli Tepe in Turkey.

It dates from around 11600 years ago and is huge, tens of times bigger than Stonehenge. It contains atleast 20 stone circles and archaeologists believe many more lay under the surface. The huge stones weigh over ten tonnes, and on them are carved reliefs of many types of animals and it is believed that when this place was constructed, the area around it was green with trees and wildlife in abundance. It is thought that it was a place of worship for hunter gatherers and if so, then that makes it the oldest temple on Earth. The site seems to have been deliberately concealed and covered over in large sections, which is why it lay undiscovered for so long; it is unknown why this was done.

Göbeckli Tepe is one of the oldest known structures built by humans, but the oldest is the wall at Theopetra cave in Greece, which is around 23,000 years old. It was built in front of the cave entrance, probably to keep the people who dwelt inside warm from the cold winds of the ice age.