Karahantepe

Karahantepe is one of the sites of the Taş Tepeler project, a programme excavating a cluster of contemporaries of Göbekli Tepe across the Şanlıurfa region, and it has produced some of the most striking material of the group. It dates to roughly the same horizon - between about 10,000 and 9500 BC, before pottery and before farming - and its structures were cut partly into the bedrock rather than built up: one chamber holds a row of eleven phallic pillars carved out of the living rock, with a human head emerging from the wall at one end, its neck extended, apparently watching them. Other buildings have T-shaped pillars of the Göbekli type with animal reliefs. The interpretation of all of this is genuinely open - excavation is recent and continuing, and reading meaning into the arrangements is speculative in a way the site's own signage is careful about. Facilities are new, with walkways and a shelter, and it is visited from Şanlıurfa alongside Göbekli Tepe.

The main sights

• The pillar chamber - eleven rock-cut pillars and the watching head.
• The T-shaped pillars - Göbekli-type stones with animal reliefs.
• The bedrock cutting - structures carved down rather than built up.
• The Tek Tek hills - the bare uplands around the site.

When to go

April to May and October to November; summer on this plateau is extreme. Mornings. Check what is open, since excavation seasons change access.

Things to know

Excavation is ongoing and areas close without notice. Interpretation of the site is genuinely unsettled - treat confident explanations with caution. No shade, and a car is required.

Nearby

Göbekli Tepe is about 40 km north-west; Şanlıurfa and its museum are the base.

Key facts