Göbekli Tepe: The First Temple?

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Long before Stonehenge, ancient builders in southeast Türkiye were creating some of the world’s first monumental stone structures. Their most famous site? Göbekli Tepe.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Lee Clare, coordinator of the Göbekli Tepe Research Project, to unravel the mysteries of this 10,000-year-old Neolithic site. Once called the world’s first temple, Göbekli Tepe is far more complex than that - shedding light on early human settlement, ritual, and the transition to farming. With breathtaking and ground breaking archaeology, this is the story of one of the most extraordinary sites of the Stone Age.

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
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1:21.0	Music Six thousand years ago, before Stonehenge was built, in Southeast Turkey, groups of people were getting together and creating some of the
1:45.5	earliest known, monumental stone structures from anywhere in the world. Of these, the most famous
1:52.9	are at Quebec-Letepe. The site is home to large round buildings, made of local limestone,
1:59.7	full of impressive T-shaped monoliths, and sculptures
2:03.0	depicting headless humans and animals from the landscape. In the past, Gubecletepe has been
2:09.1	labelled the first temple. But, as you're about to hear, that's not the case. It's much
2:15.9	more complex. It's The Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan
2:21.2	Hughes, your host. Today we're exploring the fascinating story of Gubecletepe, one of the oldest
	...

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