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Gobeklitepe, the 12,000-year-old archaeological site in Sanliurfa often called the “zero point of history,” has reached an average of around 5,000 daily visitors with the start of the autumn season.
Listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List — a global register of places recognized for their outstanding universal value — the site has steadily built up its audience since its inscription in 2018 and a national campaign in 2019.
Set 18 kilometers from Sanliurfa city center, the open-air complex stands out with T-shaped monoliths carved with wild animals.
These pillars range roughly from 3 to 6 meters in height and weigh about 40 to 60 tons. The site is dated to the Neolithic Period, a very early chapter of settled human life.
Annual admissions show a resilient trajectory despite the pandemic and disasters in 2023. The site recorded 412,378 visitors in 2019, 197,912 in 2020, 567,453 in 2021, 837,811 in 2022, 512,164 in 2023, and 731,794 in 2024.
Between January and September this year, 517,316 people toured the ruins, bringing the total over six years and nine months to 3,776,828. With the autumn uptick, daily counts are hovering near 5,000.
Sanliurfa Provincial Director of Culture and Tourism Aydin Aslan said the site has become the locomotive of regional tourism and that all tour programs for the area now include Gobeklitepe and Sanliurfa. He underlined that visitor numbers in the city have generally risen for a decade except during extraordinary events.
Mehmet Kamil Turkmen, who chairs the Tourism Vocational Committee at the Sanliurfa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, noted that September through November is particularly active, adding that daily traffic is pushing the 5,000 mark and that the season should finish strongly.
Travelers say the experience remains compelling. A tourist from Poland said he and his partner were excited to see the site and wondered how people of that time managed to build it.
A visitor from Germany said she had long hoped to come, adding that seeing ongoing excavations made the trip even more rewarding.
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