The Visitor Who Arrives at the Hilltop

Thousands of people now visit Göbekli Tepe each year, drawn by the site’s growing fame and by the protective structures that the Turkish government has erected over the excavated portions to preserve them from weather and allow visitor access.

The experience of visiting the site is, by several accounts, a powerful one.

The descent into the excavated areas, where the pillars stand in their stone settings surrounded by the evidence of the ancient fill, produces a specific quality of presence with the past that photographs and descriptions cannot fully replicate.

The scale of the pillars becomes physically real in a way that only direct experience provides.