Spotlight: Turkish ancient temple site reopens in bid for UNESCO permanent list

ANKARA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish ancient site of Gobekli Tepe, considered the world's oldest temple area, has reopened after one and a half years of preservation, bracing itself for a spot on the UNESCO Permanent List this year.

Located in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, the Neolithic-age settlement, which was built roughly 12,000 years old ago, well before the Egyptian pyramids, has been undergoing archaeological excavations since 1995.

As the oldest known human-made religious structure, the site was declared a first-degree protection area in 2015, with an official inauguration scheduled for mid-April.

Gobekli Tepe, Turkish for "Potbelly Hill," was located in a region where tourism has suffered serious decline because of the conflict in neighboring Syria.

The archeological site was included in the UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List five years ago and will be one of Turkey's nominees to enter the Permanent List during the 42nd World Heritage Committee this year.

Final preparations are currently underway for the UNESCO bid. The construction of a 4,000-square-meter protective roof will facilitate the long-term preservation of the ancient settlement, according to local authorities.

Aydin Aslan, director of Sanliurfa Culture and Tourism, said it is a 6-million-euro (7.38 million U.S. dollars) project supported by the European Union.

"We are making Gobekli Tepe ready for the committee meeting. I hope that we will enter the UNESCO list in 2018," he noted.

In addition, a research published in the magazine Science Advances last year suggests that Gobekli Tepe hosted "a previously undocumented variation of skull cult in the early Neolithic of Anatolia and the Levant."

Gobekli Tepe was discovered by researchers in early 1963. The structure contains a round structure consisting of T-shaped stones with carved animal figures, weighing each 40 to 60 tons and measuring up to six meters high.

According to experts, the builders of the marvelous ancient site may have established a solid system and hierarchy.

The site shows no sign of human habitation or domestic life, and archeologists have yet to find formal burial sites despite the discovery of nearly 700 human bone fragments from men, women and children in pits.

Sitting at the northern edge of the so-called Fertile Crescent (fertile lands of the Middle East), Gobekli Tepe would have attracted hunter-gatherers from Africa and the Middle East, according to experts.

Gobekli Tepe continued to be an active civilization for nearly three millennia before being abandoned under mysterious circumstances around 9,000 years ago.

Late German archeologist Klaus Schmidt, who made the startling discovery of the site and headed scientific work there until his death in 2014, considered it as "the first human-built holy place."

Mevlut Tezel, a columnist of Sabah Daily, suggested that Turkish authorities invite Hollywood film star Harrison Ford, who played rogue archeology professor and adventurer Indiana Jones on the widescreen, to promote the site. Enditem