Pre-Pottery Neolithic (c. 8500 BCE)
Nevalı Çori
Overview
An early-excavated Neolithic settlement north of Şanlıurfa whose monumental cult building and human-figure finds foreshadowed much of what Göbeklitepe later revealed, including T-shaped pillars and carved statuary. Investigated in the 1980s and early 1990s ahead of the rising waters of the Atatürk Dam reservoir, the site is now largely submerged, but its discoveries remain a cornerstone of how researchers understand the Taş Tepeler tradition. Its key finds are preserved and studied as part of the regional Neolithic record.
Read the full guide to Nevalı Çori on gobeklitepe.co.uk →
Highlights
- The first T-shaped pillars known to science, carved with human arms
- A cult building with polished terrazzo floor, read as an early ritual space
- Pillars re-erected in the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum galleries
- Einkorn wheat finds central to the study of early farming
- Wide blue reservoir water against dry hills, a landscape remade
History & Discovery
Rescue excavations ran from 1983 to 1991 under Harald Hauptmann of Heidelberg University as the Atatürk Dam neared completion, with a young Klaus Schmidt on the team. The dig produced the first T-shaped pillars known to science, a terrazzo-floored cult building and einkorn wheat central to the study of early farming. The reservoir covered the valley in 1992, but the cult building's pillars had been lifted to safety and now stand re-erected in the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum.
Nature & Wildlife
The site now lies beneath the Atatürk reservoir on the Euphrates, whose open water and tamarisk-fringed inlets draw cormorants, gulls and wintering ducks. The dry hills above remain steppe country, with larks, Isabelline wheatears and long-legged buzzards over the grass and stone.
Geology
Nevalı Çori stood on limestone foothill terraces above the Kantara stream, a tributary of the Euphrates, and its builders put that geology to novel use, laying hard polished terrazzo floors of burnt lime. Since the early 1990s the site has lain beneath the waters of the Atatürk Dam reservoir.
Mythology & Legend
Nevalı Çori's square 'cult building', with its polished terrazzo floor and T-shaped pillars carved with human arms, is interpreted as one of the earliest purpose-built ritual spaces — its pillars read as stylised people, silent congregants standing centuries before Göbeklitepe was known.
The landscape
The view
The original valley now lies beneath the waters of the Atatürk Dam reservoir, so the setting today is wide blue lake against dry hills north of Şanlıurfa — a landscape utterly remade.
Photography
The evocative shot is the reservoir itself at dusk from the surrounding hills; for the archaeology, photograph the reconstructed cult building in the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum instead.
Practical information
When to visit
Spring greens the hills around the reservoir and autumn brings clear light over the water; summer heat makes shadeless lakeside viewpoints uncomfortable by mid-morning.
Getting there
There is no site infrastructure or public transport; the Kantara countryside is reached only by car, and most visitors sensibly meet Nevalı Çori through its finds in the city museum.
Where to stay
Stay in Şanlıurfa as for the rest of the region; the reservoir country to the north is quiet and rural, with no accommodation aimed at travellers seeking the submerged site.
Food & water
If you do drive out towards the reservoir shores, carry ample water and supplies from the city, as facilities in this quiet rural corner are few and far between.
Safety
The site itself lies beneath the reservoir — the finds are in the Şanlıurfa museum. Shore tracks in the area are rough and remote; take water.
Accessibility
The settlement itself cannot be visited, resting beneath the reservoir; its finds and the reconstructed cult building sit in the level, lift-served galleries of the city museum.
Visitor tips
Save the fuel and see it in town: the museum's rebuilt cult building and Nevalı Çori sculptures reward far more than any lakeside viewpoint, and pair naturally with the Enclosure D replica.
Take care
- The site itself lies beneath the reservoir — see the finds in town
- Shore tracks are rough and remote — take water
Location
37.5469000, 38.6258000 · Open in OpenStreetMap
Audio Guides
Nevalı Çori · 3 min 42 s
Here is the strangest stop on this whole route, because the place it describes is no longer somewhere you can stand. Ahead of you lies wide blue water, the Atatürk reservoir on the Euphrates, with dry hills rolling back from the shore. Somewhere beneath that surface, on limestone terraces above a small tributary called the Kantara, is Nevalı Çori. Look at the lake, and know what it holds. The story runs backwards from a deadline. Through the nineteen eighties the great dam was rising and the valleys behind it were going to fill. Rescue excavations ran here from nineteen eighty-three to nineteen ninety-one under Harald Hauptmann of Heidelberg University, working against the clock, and on that team was a young archaeologist named Klaus Schmidt. What they uncovered rewrote the timetable of human history, though nobody quite realised it yet. Nevalı Çori produced the first T-shaped pillars ever known to science, standing in a square building unlike any dwelling: its floor was terrazzo, hard and polished, made from burnt lime, and around it stood pillars carved with human arms bent at the elbow. Not columns. Figures. A congregation in stone, standing silent in what is now read as one of the earliest purpose-built ritual spaces anywhere. The dig also yielded einkorn wheat that became central to the study of how farming began. Then, in nineteen ninety-two, the reservoir closed over the valley. But the pillars were not left behind. They had been lifted out to safety, and today they stand re-erected in the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum in the city, where you can walk right up to them. And here is the part worth carrying with you. A couple of years after the water rose, that young team member, Klaus Schmidt, walked onto a limestone ridge called Göbeklitepe, saw broken slabs that earlier surveyors had dismissed, and recognised in them the flat tops of the very pillars he had helped to excavate here. Nevalı Çori had taught him what to look for. This quiet vanished valley is, in a real sense, the reason the whole Stone Hills landscape came to light. The setting now is beautiful in its own remade way. Cormorants and gulls work the open water, ducks winter in the tamarisk-fringed inlets, and the dry hills above remain steppe country, with larks, Isabelline wheatears and long-legged buzzards over the grass and stone. At dusk the reservoir takes the colour of the sky, and it makes a memorable photograph, if a melancholy one. The practical advice is simple: save your fuel and meet Nevalı Çori in town. There is no site to visit here, no infrastructure and no public transport, and the shore tracks out this way are rough and remote. The reconstructed cult building and the sculptures in the city museum will give you far more than any lakeside viewpoint, and they sit naturally alongside the museum's full-size reproduction of Enclosure D from Göbeklitepe. If you do drive out to the shores regardless, carry ample water and supplies from the city, because facilities in this quiet rural corner are few and far between. Take one last look at the water before you turn back. Somewhere under it a polished floor is still perfectly level, and a room full of stone figures is still standing. Then go into town and meet them face to face.