This pillar, sometimes called the World’s Oldest Known Sculpture, is partially detached from the bedrock but never fully removed.

It is enormous — roughly 7 meters long — and its presence in the quarry, incompletely worked and left in place, demonstrates both the scale of what was attempted at Göbekli Tepe and the significant quarrying capacity that the builders maintained.

In addition to the Layer III enclosures, there is a later phase of construction designated Layer II, dated broadly to between about 8,800 and 8,000 BCE.

The Layer II structures are different in character from the older enclosures: smaller, sometimes rectangular rather than oval in plan, using smaller pillars and less elaborate carved decoration.