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Spanish photographer Isabel Munoz’s striking images of Gobeklitepe are now on display, bringing the monumental 12,000-year-old structures of southeastern Türkiye to the heart of Europe. Organized by the Suna and Inan Kirac Foundation Pera Museum, the exhibition serves as a cultural bridge between the ancient Near East and modern Germany.
According to a statement from the Suna and Inan Kirac Foundation Pera Museum, the photographs form part of the exhibition titled "Building Community: Gobeklitepe, Tas Tepeler and Life 12,000 Years Ago."
The show has been organized in cooperation with Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Vorderasiatisches Museum, which operates under the Berlin State Museums network.
The exhibition sets out to explore how early human societies took shape, approaching the Neolithic era from both anthropological and artistic perspectives.
Drawing from the Sanliurfa Museum collection in southeastern Türkiye, the exhibition brings together 89 artifacts, including 44 objects being shown to the public for the first time, along with four replicas. By placing these archaeological works alongside Munoz’s photographs, the exhibition aims to shed light on daily life and communal practices in and around Gobeklitepe and the wider Tas Tepeler region.
Gobeklitepe, located near the city of Sanliurfa in southeastern Türkiye, is widely recognized as one of the oldest known monumental ritual complexes in the world, dating back roughly 12,000 years.
Munoz’s photographs were first unveiled in 2023 at Pera Museum in Istanbul under the title “Isabel Munoz: A New Story – Photographs from Gobeklitepe and Its Surroundings.”
The exhibition later traveled to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara and, in 2024, to the National Museum of Anthropology in Spain.
The Berlin edition, which opens today, is being hosted at the James-Simon-Galerie and will remain open to visitors until July 19.
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