The ancient city of Ephesus and the Diyarbakir Fortress and its surrounding Hevsel Gardens have become the latest historical sites in Turkey to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July. Turkey’s next nomination is the Stone Age cult site of Gobeklitepe, located in Sanliurfa province not far from the turbulent Syrian border.

The site’s discovery began with a coincidence reminiscent of a movie plot. In 1983, local farmer Mahmut Kilic found a carved stone while plowing his field in the village of Orencik. He took it to the Sanliurfa Museum, where it was to wait a decade for someone to recognize its importance. Visiting the museum in 1993, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt conducted tests on the stone, marking the beginning of a journey that took him 12 millennia back in history.

In a written response to Al-Monitor’s questions, Gokhan Bozkurtlar, director-general for cultural heritage and museums at the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry, explained that a joint team from Istanbul University and the University of Chicago conducted the first archaeological work at the site in 1963. The surveys, however, remained limited to the surface. The real work began in 1995 with a joint effort by the German Archaeological Institute and the Sanliurfa Museum. In 2007, the Turkish government gave the green light for excavations, with Schmidt at the helm of the team. By 2011, the site was already on UNESCO’s tentative list, an inventory of prospective nominations to the World Heritage List, following startling discoveries that pin it as the world’s oldest temple center.

Four layers have been identified at Gobeklitepe. According to the director of the Sanliurfa Museum, Muslum Ercan, the top layer consists of agricultural surface backfill, while the other three layers have been dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. He believes at least 20 other monumental structures await excavation at the site.