Catalhoyuk

Catalhoyuk is one of the oldest towns anywhere, occupied through the eighth and seventh millennia BC by a population in the thousands. It had no streets. Mudbrick houses were built touching each other, and people moved across the roofs and climbed down ladders through openings above their hearths. They buried their dead beneath the sleeping platforms, painted their walls with figures and hunting scenes, and set plastered bull horns into benches. When a house wore out they filled it in and rebuilt on top, which is how the mound grew. Two excavation shelters cover the exposed areas, a reconstructed house shows the interior at full size, and the finds themselves are mostly in Konya and Ankara. UNESCO listed it in 2012.

The main sights

• The north shelter - excavated house walls, hearths and burial platforms.
• The replica house - a full-size reconstruction with roof entrance and bull horns.
• The mound itself - the layered profile showing houses built on houses.
• The visitor centre - models and panels explaining the excavation sequence.

When to go

Spring and autumn; the plain is scorching from late June and bitterly windy in winter. Mornings are calmer. The site is rarely busy, so timing matters less than weather. Allow around two hours including the drive from Cumra, and check opening days, which have changed with excavation seasons.

Practical notes

Be honest with yourself about why you are coming. Visually this is a low mound and two metal shelters over mudbrick outlines - the significance is enormous, the spectacle is not. There is minimal shade, wind is constant, facilities are basic, and you need a car. Many visitors are finished in forty minutes.

Nearby

Konya and its Seljuk architecture, an hour north.

Key facts