1994. Southern Turkey.
A Kurdish shepherd named Savak Yildiz was walking through the rural fields of the Anatolia Region when he spotted a rock seeping through the soil. After a bit of digging and brushing, Savak discovered, what we now know today as Göbekli Tepe - the world's most ancient and puzzling historical site.
7,000 years older than Stone Henge, radiocarbon dating has confirmed that Göbekli Tepe is in the region of 12,000 years old. To put that into perspective, the last ice age ended 11,700 years ago. Funnily enough, 11,700 years ago is also exactly the time Plato highlighted as the year Atlantis - the mysterious empire that allegedly ruled lands in Africa & Europe - was wiped out by aggressive earthquakes and floods.
There are lots of fascinating things about Göbekli Tepe, but what most gets me is how it popped out of nowhere, with no obvious background.
Prior to its discovery, mainstream history told us that human civilisation started in 5,000 BC (Göbekli Tepe dates to 10,000 BC)! Even more, it was our naive assumption that 12,000 years ago human's had not evolved into organised groups and forged efficient ways in which to communicate; let alone build a spectacular monolith.
Not only is Göbekli Tepe unbelievably old, it's also home to remarkable craftsmanship, architecture and construction thousands of years ahead of its time.
Blocks that make up the site weigh up to 50 tonnes; in other words 50 great white sharks per block. We haven't the foggiest clue how they managed to lift, transport and place these blocks with almost perfect alignment. Just look at the incredibly sophisticated craftsmanship on these rocks below. They even have a 3D effect where the object comes out of the flat based rock.
Like the pyramids, it also has astrological expertise too as multiple pillars have a perfect north and south alignment; proving that humans 12,000 years ago were not just roaming the earth hunting for food, but instead, were far more intelligent and curious than we believe.
At first we believed GT was just one single site. But with the help of ground penetrating radar, our eyes have been opened and we now know 20 similar sites lay buried within the soil closeby. This begs the question, how many civilisations/towns/cities existed in the past, that we are totally oblivious of?
I've already mentioned the rumour of Atlantis, but according to the diary of Spanish explorer Gasper de Carvajal, prosperous civilisations within the Amazon rainforest existed. In 1542 when sailing down the Amazon river, he encountered a city that stretched 24km wide, with little to no space between each building. Depending on how picky you want to be, Madrid is just 15km wide (Casa de Campo until airport), so we're talking about a city larger than Madrid in 2020, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, 500 years ago.
Upon return a few years later, Spanish explorers found no sign of the city, as we assume it had been abandoned and gobbled up by nature. Abandoned because upon arriving to 'the new world', the Europeans brought small-pox with them, a disease previously unknown to the land of the Americas. Today we know that the disease killed off at least 90% of the indigenous people of both the North and South continent.
Everything that we knew prior to finding Göbekli Tepe suggests this place is impossible to exist, yet here it lies today. I for one am excited to learn more and be humbled by earth's fascinating history.