Garden of Eden

Published April 5, 2010

The Garden of Eden, like Atlantis, has excited the imagination of many over the centuries. Its location has been the subject of what was sometimes wild speculation that offered a range of locations compared with the variety of sites proposed for Atlantis.

The traditional belief was that the ‘Garden’ had been situated in Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris as noted in the Bible. Athanasius Kircher, who is better known to many for his speculative map of Atlantis located in the Atlantic Ocean also produced a plan of the Garden of Eden in what is now southern Iraq. David J. Gibson (1904-1966) arrived at a similar conclusion placing ‘Eden’ just south of Baghdad in his book, The Land of Eden Located, now available online^(t).

The T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism offers a clue to the sort of difficulties that ‘Garden seekers’ must deal with, in the Garden of Eden entry. “as an earthly garden, its specific location within both the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple literature. Thus, some texts place it in the east (Gen 2:8; 1En.32; Jub 8:16; 2 En. [rec.32] 42:3, 65:10; Philo QG 1:7; Leg 1:56; Josephus, Ant. 1.3), while others place it in the west (Gen 3:24; Josephus, JW 2.155), north (Ezek 28:13; 1En. 61.1), or northwest (1 En.24-25, 70:3).”^(ap)

More recently, Robert McRoberts in an article about the rivers of Eden included a map by Arianna Ravenswood, who placed Eden northwest of Babylon in what is now the Iraqi Province of Diyala^(u).

Within the same region is a submerged location at the head of the Persian Gulf promoted by Juris Zarins (1945- ).^(w) In his theory, the Bible’s Gihon River would correspond with the Karun River in Iran, and the Pishon River would match the Wadi Batin river system that had drained the now dry, but once quite fertile central part of the Arabian Peninsula. His suggestion about the Pishon River is supported by James A. Sauer (1945–1999) formerly of the American Center of Oriental Research although strongly criticized by the archaeological community^(x).

>A number of commentators have suggested that the site of Eden is now under water, where lower sea levels during the Ice Age would have revealed land now submerged, such as in the Persian Gulf. The Red Sea has also been proposed.<

Kircher’s Garden of Eden

The conventional idea has been enhanced in the opinion of some by the discoveries of the German archaeologist, Klaus Schmidt, who believed that his excavations at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey have unearthed artefacts dating to 8000 BC when the people there changed from hunting and gathering to agriculture. This region also contains Ur and Harran, mentioned in the Old Testament and since Göblekli Tepe is located between the Tigris and Euphrates and is within view of the Taurus Mountains, it conforms remarkably to the topographical description of Eden in the Bible. Tom Knox speculated on this in an article in the UK’s Daily Mail Online^(aa).

>It was no great surprise when I found at that least one commentator has proposed Göbekli Tepe and the surrounding area was the site of the Garden of Eden^(au).<

Garold Spire jr, an American researcher, offers a strong case for placing Eden in southern Turkey at the Karaca Dag shield-volcano. He studied the sacred books of the Abrahamic religions and drew up a short list of characteristics that the Garden must have;

1) It must have been warm enough to be comfortable without protective clothing. Gen 2:25.

2) It must be uphill geographically, due to the fact that four rivers exited

from it, these are the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Pishon, and the Gihon. Gen 2:10-14

3) The Pishon must compass or border Havila where there is gold and onyx. Gen 2:11, 12.

4)The Gihon must compass or border the whole land of Cush. Gen 2:13

5) It must account for a flaming sword on its east side. Gen 3:24

6) It must be well watered, Gen 13:10 by a mist (in Hebrew) not rain, Gen 2:5-6, which came up from the earth.

Spire maintains that his Turkish location has all these features^(an).

Christopher Columbus believed that the source of the Orinoco River, in what is now known as Venezuela had been the location of Eden. Antonio de León Pinelo (1590-1660) was a Spanish chronicler who spent some years in South America and was also convinced that the Garden of Eden had been situated between the great rivers of South America^(k)!

The imaginative Augustus Le Plongeon claimed the Yucatan as the location of the ‘Garden’^(s)an idea endorsed by his wife, Alice Dixon Le Plongeon.

In more recent times, Ramiro Gonzales Yaksic (1966- ), the author of Earthly Paradise: The Garden of the Andes ^[1055] in which he claims to have identified the biblical Garden of Eden in his native Bolivia^(ar). Dieter Groban has written in support of Yaksic^(as).

General Gordon of Khartoum fame was so impressed by the island of Preslin in the Seychelles that he declared it to be the Garden of Eden and its famed Coco de Mer and breadfruit plants to be the Tree of Life and the Tree of Good and Evil. Science writer, Karl Shuker, has written an extensive article, Forbidden Fruit, for the January 2016 edition of Fortean Times, in which he gives the background to Gordon’s obsession and his inability to garner any serious support for it.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, it was reported^(r) that G. F. Becker (1847-1919) a geologist with the USGS nominated Luzon in the Philippines as the site of the biblical ‘Garden’, while Sven Hedin (1865-1952) a much-decorated Swedish geographer chose Janaidar a mythical city in Central Asia.

George H. Cooper, the American writer, identified Salisbury Plain^[⁰²³⁶^.111] as the Garden of Eden along with its Wiltshire river system matching the Euphrates and Tigris in the Genesis story. W. Comyns Beaumont chose Britain’s Glastonbury as the site of the original Garden.

In the middle of the last century, a Baptist preacher, Elvy E. Callaway, announced that the Garden had been located in the vicinity of Bristol, Florida^(j).

David Rohl has studied the matter in great detail ^[²³⁰^] and located the ‘Garden’ in the northern Iranian province of East Azerbaijan near the city of Tabriz^(ad)(aj). Rohl’s reasoning is worthy of study and perhaps a comparison with the views of Emilio Spedicato, who offers his explanation for placing Eden in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley in two papers on the Internet⁽^b)(y⁾. Rohl was partly inspired by the work of Reginald A. Walker ^[1388/9].

>The inventive David Hatcher Childress published an article in issue 31 of the Atlantis Rising magazine with the title of Central Asia’s Ancient Heart and a subtitle that asks the question ‘Could Afghanistan Once Have Been the Garden of Eden?’ He then proceeds to offer a couple of pages about ancient Mongolia, with little reference to either Afghanistan or the Garden of Eden!<

Andrew Collins claims ^[⁰⁷³^] that the original Mesopotamian name for Eden was Kharsag, a view echoed by the late Christian O’Brien^(q). O’Brien’s nephew, Edmund Marriage, identifies the Bekka Valley in Lebanon as the location of Eden of Genesis. A new Lebanese location site is the subject of a website and forum^(h)(i). An excerpt from O’Brien’s book, relating to Eden, can be read online^(v).

Ari Zuker bravely suggests that the land of Israel was the Garden of Eden^(ao). John Appelt, an American pastor also supports this idea ^(at).

The Sabbah brothers, Roger and Messod, controversially place Eden in Egypt ^[³¹⁰^]and offer a range of evidence to support this contention. Ralph Ellis has also opted for Egypt in his book, Eden in Egypt^[⁰⁹⁵¹^] and claims that Adam and Eve were in reality, Akhenaton and Nefertiti! Ellis also supports his theory with two online papers providing excerpts from his books^(o)(p).

A Christian website, logoschristian.org, used to also claim that Eden had been located in the eastern Nile Delta, specifically named Al Mansura. In 1933, John G. Jackson wrote a paper advocating an African origin for the legend of the Garden of Eden. Jackson’s extreme Afrocentric views may have coloured his view of this subject!

Further to the west is the Tunisian town of Oudna, which has been nominated as Eden by one Patrick Archer on his somewhat sparse website⁽^d⁾.

Gerald Wells also identified some of his Algerian Atlantis territories as having included the biblical Garden of Eden^(aq⁾.

Another African location was put forward by Georg Hinzpeter over half a century ago when he suggested that the Ethiopian plateau had been the home of Adam & Eve before their eviction^(z).

Stephen E. Franklin has also opted for an African location for the Garden of Eden, placing it south of the Ahaggar Mountains near the Wadi Tafanasset in southern Algeria.^(ah⁾ He also claims that Mt. Tahat, the highest peak in the Ahaggars, was, according to Franklin, the original Atlas mountain referred to by Herodotus as the home of the Atlantes (sometimes Atarantes^(ai⁾). Sprague De Camp noted ^[194.191]that Paul Borchardt also identified the ancient Mt. Atlas with the Ahaggar Mountains rather than the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb! I should add that this identification of Mt. Atlas remains moot.

In 2014, Stan Deyo chose Tanzania as the location of the Garden of Eden^(h). Paulo Riven has also supported the region as the site of the ‘Garden’^(ak). This idea has been echoed elsewhere and more recently on a website dealing with the history of Israel^(f) and on a Christian website where the Ngorongoro Crater is specified^(g).

Carl Seaver has also offered an African location for the Garden. In a 2022 article, he reports that according to recent research, Botswana is the most likely location of the Garden and where humans originated. Eden sat in the Kalahari Desert, which used to be a wetland where the early humans lived. During this time, Lake Makgadikgadi stretched from Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe^(am).

In 2023 an African location for the Garden was again proposed by journalist, Tom Hale, who wrote^(al) “The so-called Cradle of Humankind can be found in South Africa around 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. This site is home to the largest concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world. Among the thousands of fossils found here, researchers have unearthed the remains of Australopithecus, an early ape-like human species dated to around 3.4 to 3.7 million years old.

It wasn’t until 200,000 to 300,000 years ago that modern Homo sapiens evolved. Once again, Africa was the location of this development, with modern humans most likely first emerging somewhere around modern-day Ethiopia.

So, if we’re looking for a scientific Garden of Eden, it looks like South Africa and Ethiopia are our best bet. Whether these sites were once home to a paradise where four rivers once met remains to be seen, however.”

What may appear just as implausible to many is the claim by Felice Vinci^[⁰¹⁹^], that the Eden story was imported from northern Europe, specifically from Finnish Lapland^(af⁾. At the end of the 19th century, William Fairfield Warren placed the Garden in the Arctic ^[0078].

Even more incredible is the assertion by the likes of William C. Chappell that the Garden of Eden was situated in the United States. His Mormon-inspired views are available as a free eBook⁽^c⁾ on the Internet. Interestingly, Jackson County, Missouri was the location of Eden revealed by Joseph Smith^(ac). the founder of Mormonism and well-known collector of wives.

A more ‘commercial’ suggestion has come from Dennis Brooks who suggested that Tarpon Springs, Florida, was originally the location of the Garden of Eden and that Tampa Bay contained the port of Atlantis.

The Urantia Book promotes the idea of two Edens, one near Cyprus and a second further east! In 2003, Robert Sarmast compiled a list of similarities between Plato’s account of Atlantis and the description of the Garden of Eden in the Urantia Book^(l).

In his 2004 book Finding Atlantis he claimed one of the Edens, noted in The Urantia Book, along with Atlantis had been situated near Cyprus, now in waters a mile deep! Two expeditions were organised to verify his claims, but nothing conclusive was found. Although very little has been heard from Sarmast in recent years, in 2018, Robert S. Bates attempted to breathe new life into Sarmast’s ideas that the Mediterranean region around Cyprus had been home to both Atlantis and the Garden of Eden^(ae).

Stephen Oppenheimer has pointed out^[⁰⁰⁴^] that Genesis 2:8 reads that “the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden”. He argues (p.409) that this supports the idea of a ‘paradise’ in the Sundaland region. However, Oppenheimer does not equate Eden with Atlantis.

As Monty Python used to say “now for something completely different” – The North Pole. This suggestion has come from Gene Matlock who advocated that ‘Eden was the North Pole’ in a paper of the same name^(ab).

The Garden of Eden has been suggested by some as another name for Atlantis, representing as it does a mythical time of peace and abundance. However, Eden is never spoken of in terms of military might and commercial success attributed to Atlantis. One of the better-known proponents of this idea of an Atlantean Eden was the late Professor Arysio dos Santos⁽^a⁾ who was convinced that it was located in the South China Sea before the ending of the last Ice Age submerged large areas of Sundaland. Confusingly, he referred to Eden as ‘Lemurian Atlantis’, but added that “This Lemurian Atlantis of ours should not be confused with the purely fanciful counterparts of the Theosophists and other such followers of Mme. Blavatsky. Their ‘Lemuria’ is a hypothetical sunken continent of the mid-Pacific region, one which never existed at all.

Shortly before his death in 2005, Santos published ^[³²⁰^] his theories, expanding on material that he had made available on the Internet for some years. Frank Joseph also claims ^[¹⁰⁶^][¹⁰⁷^] that the Garden of Eden was located on the lost island of ‘Lemuria’ located in the Pacific.

Bill Hanson, who has authored a number of books on ancient ‘mysteries’, has recently written a work ^[³⁵²^] that links the Garden of Eden with Atlantis. He identifies five similarities between the two accounts:

Both prehistoric locations are regarded as ‘lost paradises’
The four rivers of Eden are reflected in the four waterways of Poseidon the island capital of Atlantis.
Atlantis started with ten kings and the Bible speaks of ten patriarchs.
Zeus destroyed Atlantis because mortals and gods mated, whereas the Bible records the mating of the ‘sons of God’ and human females.
Atlantis was flooded just as the Age of the Patriarchs ended with the flood of Noah.

The late Joseph Robert Jochmans identified^(g⁾ Atlantis with Eden in a comprehensive article on his website. John Nichols also wrote a long article^(e⁾ identifying Atlantis with the Garden of Eden and placing it on the Celtic Shelf about a hundred miles off the coast of France due west of Brest.

Frederick Dodson in a hefty 523-page book^[989]claims an Atlantis-Garden of Eden connection⁽ⁿ⁾. In 2018, the Catalan researcher, José Luis Espejo also equated Atlantis with the Garden of Eden^[¹⁶⁰⁷^].

In 2022, a writer, hiding behind the nom de plume of ‘gserpent’, produced a lengthy article blending Atlantis, Eden and Lemuria into one heap of literary manure⁽^ag⁾.

Currently. the sadly benighted Iraq is trying to lure tourists to spend their holidays in ‘the Garden of Eden’^(m⁾!

⁽^a⁾http://www.lost-civilizations.net/atlantis-corroborating-evidence-page-12.html

⁽^b⁾kharsag (grazian-archive.com)

⁽^c⁾http://losttruthfound.com/gardenofedenfound.pdf

⁽^d⁾https://patrickofatlantis.com/

⁽^e⁾ https://jjswn35.wordpress.com/article/atlantis-eden-how-to-find-2vfxjftuay98o-9/

⁽^f⁾ https://sites.google.com/site/tribesofatlantis/Home/the-garden-of-eden

^(g) See: Archive 3602

^(h)The Garden of Eden – Found in Rashaya El-Wadi – the-lebanon.com (archive.org) *^or Archive 3182

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.christianforums.com/threads/the-garden-of-eden-origin-of-agriculture-found-near-rashaya-el-wadi-lebanon.7535161/*

^(j) https://www.weirdus.com/states/florida/fabled_people_and_places/garden_of_eden/index.php

^(k) See: Archive 2999

^(l⁾ See: Archive 3603

^(m⁾ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqs-new-venture-holidays-in-the-garden-of-eden-882635.html

⁽ⁿ⁾https://web.archive.org/web/20160409211234/http://www.ancient-atlantis.com:80/eve-on-the-island-of-apples/

^(o) https://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-guest-authors/eden-egypt-part-1-001827

^(p)https://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-guest-authors/eden-egypt-part-2-001831

^(q) https://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/obrienvsitchin.php

^(r) https://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/83084172?searchTerm=Atlantis discovered&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc

^(s) https://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/126128214?searchTerm=Atlantis discovered&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc

^(t) https://nabataea.net/djgibson.html

^(u) https://web.archive.org/web/20190916073848/https://theancientneareast.com/the-four-rivers-of-eden/

^(v)https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-writings/what-happened-eden-alternative-translation-tells-very-different-story-021833.

^(w) https://www.ldolphin.org/eden/

^(x) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Zarins

^(y)https://www.emiliospedicato.it/geography-and-numerics-of-eden-kharsag-and-paradise-sumerian-and-enochian-sources-versus-the-genesis-tale/

^(z) Atlantis, Vol.17, No. 2/3, April 1964, p.27

^(aa) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1157784/Do-mysterious-stones-mark-site-Garden-Eden.html

^(ab) http://www.viewzone.com/edenpole.html

^(ac) https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Joseph_Smith/Prophet/Garden_of_Eden_in_Missouri

^(ad) http://www.british-israel.ca/Eden.htm

^(ae) EAP-Essay-FINAL.pdf (evolving-souls.org)

^(af) The climatic optimum, the Indo-European paradise and the Garden of Eden – The Tapestry of Time (larazzodeltempo.it)

^(ag) Atlantis: The Garden of Eden – secretsoftheserpent (archive.org)

^(ah) https://neros.lordbalto.com/ChapterEight.htm

^(ai) W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, BOOK IV, chapter 184 (tufts.edu)

^(aj) https://davidrohl.blogspot.com/2012/02/

^(ak) https://sites.google.com/site/tribesofatlantis/Home/the-garden-of-eden

^(al) https://www.iflscience.com/where-is-the-garden-of-eden-and-where-would-it-be-located-today-66925

^(am) https://www.historydefined.net/where-would-the-garden-of-eden-be-today/

^(an) (99+) The Garden of Eden-allegory or archaeology | Gari Spire – Academia.edu

^(ao) (99+) THE GARDEN OF EDEN IN GALILEE | Ari Zuker – Academia.edu

^(ap) (99+) Garden of Eden – Paradise | Eshbal Ratson – Academia.edu

^(aq) https://medium.com/@geraldjohnwells/atlantis-and-the-garden-of-eden-a-contemporary-view-of-revelation-4a11067994d7

^(ar) Archive 2331

^(as) https://www.facebook.com/Groben.Turismo/posts/926029544094509

^(at) https://ebible.com/questions/790-what-is-the-location-of-the-garden-of-eden (third item)

^(au) The Garden of Eden Discovered?Spiritual Core Theory *

Tagged Ahaggar Mountains, Andrew Collins, Antonio de León Pinelo, Arabia, Ari Zuker, Arianna Ravenswood, Arysio dos Santos, Athanasius Kircher, Atlantis, Augustus le Plongeon, Babylon, Bekka Valley, Bible, Bill Hanson, Bolivia, Bristol Florida, Carl Seaver, Celtic Shelf, Christian O'Brien, Christopher Colombus, Cyprus, David J. Gibson, David Rohl, Dieter Groban, Diyala, Edmund O'Brien, Elvy E. Callaway, Emilio Spedicato, Felice Vinci, Frank Joseph, Frederick Dodson, G. F. Becker, Garden of Eden, Garold Spire jr, Gene Matlock, Gerald Wells, Gihon River, Glastonbury, Gobekli Tepe, Gordon of Khartoum, Iraq, James A. Sauer, John G. Jackson, John Nichols, Joseph Robert Jochmans, Joseph Smith, Juris Zarins, Karun River, Kharsag, Klaus Schmidt, Lappland, Lemuria, Luzon, Mesopotamia, Mormons, Ngorongoro, North Pole, Orinoco, Patrick Archer, Paul Borchardt, Paulo Riven, Persian Gulf, Pishon River, Ralph Ellis, Ramiro Gonzales Yaksic, Red Sea, Reginald A. Walker, Robert McRoberts, Robert Sarmast, Sabbah brothers, Sprague de Camp, Stan Deyo, Stephen E Franklin, Stephen Oppenheimer, Sundaland, Sven Hedin, Tabriz, Tampa Bay, The Urantia Book, Tom Knox, Tree of Life, W. Comyns Beaumont, Wadi Batin, Wadi Tafanasset, William C.Chappell, Yucatan

Göbekli Tepe

Published March 23, 2010

Göbekli Tepe is a site in South-East Turkey, just north of the Syrian border near the town of Sanliurfa that has been excavated for the past 15 years. The Smithsonian.com website noted^(be⁾ that “Gobekli Tepe was first examined—and dismissed—by University of Chicago and Istanbul University anthropologists in the 1960s. As part of a sweeping survey of the region, they visited the hill, saw some broken slabs of limestone and assumed the mound was nothing more than an abandoned medieval cemetery.”

The site work has been led by the German archaeologist, the late Klaus Schmidt, who has dated the site to 9600 BC, eerily coinciding with Plato’s apparent date for the war with Atlantis. In fairness to those who accept Plato’s date, the existence of the monuments at Göbekli Tepe at such an early date at least indicates the possibility, of Plato’s date being correct. However, I am not altogether happy with the date assigned to the site, as I cannot imagine how the stones were carved to such a high standard without metal tools, a development still some thousands of years in the future. Dating details are available online^(ar).

There is now a claim that another site, Körtik Tepe, may even be older^(av), with a suggested date of 12,500 to 11,700 years ago! Furthermore, another site, Boncuklu Tarla, located about 300 kilometres east of Göbekli Tepe is also believed to be older^(br⁾.

A paper by Schmidt on the development of agriculture at the time of Göbekli Tepe is freely available online⁽^ao⁾

Sanliurfa mentioned above was ancient Urfa and is suggested by David Rohl as the original Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham.

The site consists of megalithic stone circles with T-shaped uprights on some of which are carved a variety of animals. What is most peculiar is the fact that these monuments were completely buried after hundreds of years of use. One suggestion is that the site is pre-diluvian and was buried by the biblical Flood!

A paper by Alastair Coombs entitled The Atlantis Twins offered further thoughts on possible prehistoric references, including a suggested link with Göbekli Tepe. This was expanded and retitled as Göbekli Tepe & the Atlantis Twins and later published on Graham Hancock’s website^(aq)(bx)*.

Schmidt was convinced that this site marked the transition from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural society. An interesting article is to be found in the March/April 2009 issue of Saudi Aramco World and on its website⁽^a⁾.

The consensus now is that Göbekli Tepe is the oldest known temple in the world, predating the temples of Malta by an astonishing 4,000-5,000 years. This, of course, is based on the dating offered by Schmidt, which may require revision. Further north is the ancient site of Kahin Tepe considered to be the oldest temple site in the Black Sea region. The remains of structures there have been identified as belonging to the Aceramic Neolithic Period, which dates back as far back as 12,000 years ago^(bf).

However, Adam’s Calendar⁽^c⁾in Mpumalanga, South Africa, has been dated to over 70,000 BC, which, if true, would throw an even greater number of theories onto the scrap heap. However, such dates are highly speculative and, at this point, without any scientific basis.

An imaginative article by Tom Knox, in the UK’s Daily Mail Online, suggested that Göbekli Tepe may be connected with the Garden of Eden^(bd⁾. Klaus Schmidt commented that ‘Gobekli Tepe is not the Garden of Eden: it is a temple in Eden.’

However, the idea that Göbekli Tepe is a temple site has been challenged by Professor Ted Banning at the University of Toronto, who has claimed^(j) that it was ‘one of the world’s biggest garbage dumps’ suggested by the amounts of bones, tools and charcoal found there. Instead, he claims that the structures were homes, I find this unconvincing. Needless to say, Schmidt was also unhappy with Banning’s contention and was writing a rebuttal of his claim, which I’m not sure if it was completed or published.

Readers might be interested in comparing the monuments of Gobekli Tepe with the taulas of Menorca^(d)at the far end of the Mediterranean. Some of which are also to be found in clusters.

Studies have confirmed astronomical alignments at these sites⁽ⁱ⁾. A German site has highlighted a possible connection^(ac). The most extensive publication on the subject of taulas was published in 1995 by Hochsieder & Knösel, in French^[¹⁰⁶⁴^].

A 2020 paper by Gil Haklay & Avi Gopher has concluded that their “architectural formal analysis (and the central points calculated) has brought to light an underlying geometric pattern based on an equilateral triangle and a set of main perpendicular axes that ties together Enclosures B, C and D under a single, rather complex geometric design. This suggests a new understanding of what has been initially planned and then built in the enclosure’s system of the main excavation area. It offers an answer to questions on the chronological relationships between the three enclosures, and it evokes insights regarding the architectural design process and how such architectural complexity could have been achieved.” ^(bv)

National Geographic magazine published a leading article on the site in June 2011, which can be read online^(e). A new website devoted to Göbekli Tepe with more images is worth a visit^(f). Another well-illustrated site^(k)has drawn attention to the possibility that the animal images at the site match constellations at the time they were carved. It will be interesting to see how this particular investigation proceeds.

Nevertheless, another temple site 30 km to the northwest, Nevali Çori^(g), dated to 6,000 BC also has T-shaped pillars but in my mind, it raises the question of how the same form of the monument would still be in use three and a half thousand years later. I would expect some stylistic evolution unless, of course, the dating of the two sites should be closer.

Another large site designated as Karahan Tepe^(t), which is 63 km east of Sanliurfa is ‘reported’ to have hundreds of pillars, many T-shaped^(h). In September 2019, a start on the excavation of the site was announced^(aw). Work continued through 2020 and is expected to restart in 2021^(bg). The suggestion now is that Karahan Tepe may be older than Göbekli Tepe^(bq). Andrew Collins has written a paper entitled Karahan Tepe: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site—Another Temple Of The Stars?^(bj)

A Norwegian website^(l) has some little-seen images of the Göbekli Tepe site.

A new suggestion has now emerged linking Easter Island and the ongoing discoveries at Göbekli Tepe. This seems to date back to early 2010^(m)and has now been given greater prominence in Robert Schoch’s most recent book, Forgotten Civilization^[867]. A 2013 article⁽ⁿ⁾ by Schoch includes a report of a recent visit by him to the site.

In July 2013 a paper^(o)(p) by Giulio Magli explores the possibility that Göbekli Tepe had been constructed to “celebrate and successively follow the appearance of a new, extremely brilliant star in the southern skies: Sirius.” Sirius is the brightest star and had significance for ancient Egyptians and Greeks and features in Robert Temple’s theory regarding the astronomical knowledge of the Dogon people of Mali.

Amanda Laoupi has written a five-part paper in which she expands on the significance of Sirius for the Pelasgians, among others^(al).

Magli’s suggestion has been dismissed in a paper^(q) by Andrew Collins and Rodney Hale, who have made the alternative proposal that if there was an intended astronomical orientation, a more likely candidate was the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation. Collins has already explored the significance of that constellation in the ancient cultures of America, Egypt and Britain in The Cygnus Mystery^[075].

Nevertheless, Anthony Murphy and Richard Moore have written^(bi) about the Cygnus Constellation and a possible link with Ireland’s Newgrange ^[1441].

In 2014, Collins devoted an entire book to the Göbekli Tepe discoveries with the publication of Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods^[⁹⁸³^]. In it, he refers briefly to Atlantis commenting that “Plato’s account of Atlantis might well be based on some kind of historical reality” (p.168). This seems to lack the certainty he showed in his best-selling Gateway to Atlantis^[073]. Collins and Rodney Hale have published a paper in which they discuss the possible astronomical value of ‘Pillar 43’ at Göbekli Tepe^(bw).

Additionally, Collins has produced a 68-minute video entitled Gobekli Tepe and the Watchers of Eden, referencing his earlier work^(w). A preview^(y) of Genesis of the Gods has been published on several websites including Academia.edu and Graham Hancock.com. Collins’ book has been heavily criticised as pseudoscience^(an)by at least one reviewer on ‘goodreads’.

Hugh Newman, author and self-confessed ‘megalithomaniac’ has now proposed links between Göbekli Tepe and ancient Peru. He has also managed to include Göbekli Tepe in his theory of earth grids^(r). Another writer, Trebha Cooper, claims a link between France and Göbekli Tepe^(x)!

The unexpected death of Klaus Schmidt (1953-2014) took place on Sunday, July 20th, 2014 and was announced shortly afterwards^(s).

In September 2014, archaeologists on the site described it as “the oldest known sculptural workshop on the planet.”^(v)

The excellent The Stream of Time website from ‘antiquated antiquarian’ has a couple of well-illustrated blogs relating to Göbekli Tepe^(z)and the region generally.

In April 2015, the Ancient Origins website published a two-part article^(ag) by Ozgür Baris Etli, a Turkish scientist, in which he discusses the most recent discoveries on the site. The article^(aa)(ab) is well illustrated as the author reviews the carvings there and their possible relevance to the early development of religion. In a 2016 article^(ah), on the same site, he has drawn attention to the similarity of the position of carved hands at Göbekli Tepe, Easter Island as well as some other sites around the world where the hands are shown meeting at the navel. The significance of this, if any, is not known.

What has been identified as possibly the earliest pictograph in the world has now been revealed at the Göbekli Tepe site^(ad). Andrew Collins also claims^(ae) to have found the earliest depiction of Göbekli Tepe in the museum at Sanliurfa. Not unexpectedly Jason Colavito has a few words to say on the matter^(af). Colavito also has a critical view^(ai) of the recent Turkish documentary, supported by the government, which claims that Göbekli Tepe was built by Telah, Abraham’s father, and destroyed by Abraham. So who built Nevali Çori?

A 2016 paper^(bm) by J.A. Belmonte, et al offers a review of recent archaeoastronomical studies in the Eastern Mediterranean including Göbekli, the Hittites and the Egyptians.

The March 2017 edition of Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry (Vol.17, No.1, pp 233-250) includes a paper^(aj) by M.B. Sweatman & D. Tsikritsis of the University of Edinburgh. In it they claim that the animals carved on the Göbekli Tepe pillars represent asterisms and that they found “compelling evidence that the famous ‘Vulture Stone’ is a date stamp for 10950 BC ± 250 yrs, which corresponds closely to the proposed Younger Dryas event, estimated at 10890 BC.” Understandably, their claims have been met with stony scepticism^(ak). Sweatman has expanded his ideas further in Prehistory Decoded ^[¹⁶²¹^].

Shortly after Sweatman & Tsikritsis (S&T) published their paper, a number of the archaeologists who have excavated at the site quickly published, in the same journal, several critical comments relating to the methodology and conclusions of S&T^(bn).

The interpretation of the carvings has exercised the imagination of various researchers such as Graham Hancock, Andis Kaulins, and Paul Burley, as well as Sweatman and Tsikritsis, but no consensus has emerged, apart from an element of an agreement that some form of zodiacal representation is involved. The range of decipherments is discussed in detail in a paper by Edmond Furter who is disinclined to accept the zodiac explanation^(bl).

In an August 2019 article on Graham Hancock’s website^(at) Sweatman ventures further into the realms of wild speculation with the suggestion that Göbekli Tepe should be considered the world’s first ‘university’. This obviously had Jason Colavito spluttering into his cereal bowl, prompting him to apply his literary scalpel to the idea^(au).

Constantinos Ragazas has produced a paper^(am) in which he argues against the early date ascribed to Göbekli Tepe by Schmidt and others. He ponders on “How a Date can go wrong: Were Göbekli Tepe built 600 BC by Babylonians/Assyrians, no one would flinch a thought. It is the Date that makes Göbekli Tepe an enigma. The great dilemma for archaeologists is reconciling the date with the people that built Göbekli Tepe. Either the date is wrong or our theories of prehistoric people are wrong. And prehistoric people were more capable 12,000 years ago than all our other evidence tells us. Archaeologists trust their data over their understanding of prehistoric people. I argue the date is wrong. And prehistoric people were as we have always thought.” While this is controversial enough, Ragazas goes further and claims that Göbekli Tepe is, in truth, the site of the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’!

However, Ragazas’ reservations regarding the early dating of Göbekli Tepe were given further support in an extensive 2016 paper^(ap) by Dimitrios Dendrinos of the University of Kansas.

In March 2019, a paper by Roger M. Pearlman put forward another radical idea, namely, that Göbekli Tepe had been founded by Noah (Noach) and his sons^(as).

There was further excitement at Göbekli Tepe in September 2019 when Andrew Collins was removed from the site and his book, From the Ashes of Angels, banned in Turkey and Collins himself may be subject to a ban. It seems that he may have expressed pro-Kurdish sentiments, which is a big no-no with the Turkish authorities. It is also speculated that some of Collins’ historical views run counter to some extreme Islamic interpretation of the past!

2019 produced another radical theory from A.Refik Kutluer, a Turkish tourism executive, who proposed in an interesting article^(ax) that Göbekli Tepe was a site of ritual sacrifice. He suggests the possibility that “Men tried to placate the gods to avoid their anger and to keep them satisfied. As the gods punished them with natural disasters taking many lives when they became angry, men sought a way to mollify the gods, killing some of their own to ward off the gods’ rage, thinking that the gods were satisfied when these people or animals were sacrificed.“

2019 also saw reports^(ay⁾ of a ‘mini’ Göbekli Tepe in the Mardin Province of southeast Turkey and dated to 11,300 years ago.

In 2019, Robert Schoch in a paper^(ba⁾ written with Manu Seyfzadeh claimed that the “world’s first known written word at Göbekli Tepe on T-Shaped Pillar 18 means God”. In a recent Lost Origins podcast, Schoch repeated this claim, which led Jason Colavito to attack its credibility^(bb⁾, finding it “remarkable that he (Schoch) can translate a heretofore unsuspected system of writing in a 10,000-year-old language no one alive has ever heard. After all, several writing systems from historic times, such as linear A, related to languages that were only spoken a few thousand years ago, remain largely unreadable. We can’t even read Etruscan fluently, and yet Schoch has supposedly learned to read an Ice Age language! Think about that. For example, Old English is largely unintelligible to modern English speakers, while the Ice Age is removed in time from us by a factor of twenty times that chronological distance. The unlikeliness of Schoch’s claim boggles the mind.”

There are now regular updates available regarding the ongoing work at the Göbekli site, with contributions from members of the Göbekli Tepe Archaeological Research Project^(az⁾.

In 2020, Stone Age rock tombs were excavated not too far from Göbekli Tepe at the Kizilkoyun Necropolis area, adding to the importance of the region^(bc⁾.

Also, in April 2020, Haaretz published a report that “a discovery by Israeli archaeologists suggests the Göbekli Tepe construction project was even more complex than previously thought and required an amount of planning and resources thought to be impossible for those times.”^(bh)

In June 2021, “Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy told reporters gathered in the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa that several new sites had been found in the vicinity of Göbeklitepe.” and “We have [discovered] 11 more major hills on a 100-kilometre line around Göbeklitepe,” Ersoy declared. “Here, we will give the details for the first time, and now call it 12 hills.” In fact, Ersoy offered few details about what had been found at these new sites. He explained that a “major study” was on the verge of being completed and said the results of that study would be released in September 2021.”^(bk⁾

Graham Hancock visited the Karahan Tepe site in 2020 and found a team of Turkish archaeologists well-advanced with their excavations. As their findings were unpublished until now^(bp⁾, Hancock refrained from offering his observations^(bo). The enclosure revealed a carved human head protruding from the bedrock as well as a number of pillars that appeared to represent phalli! Hancock echoed Minister Ersoy’s comments noting that “a dozen other sites of similar antiquity are under excavation in the so-called “Stone Hills” area, a zone of intense interest to archaeologists extending for 100 square kilometres around Gobekli Tepe.”

A travel site has a useful article that should be read by anyone intending to visit Gobekli Tepe. This was last updated in August 2022^(bt).

The World History Encyclopedia offers further interesting information regarding the discoveries at the site^(bu⁾.

Fortunately, no damage was reported at Gobekli Tepe following the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and nearby Syria.>However, October 2023 brought news that further exciting discoveries have been made at both Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe. At the former a statue of a giant man, 7.5-foot-tall, and apparently clutching his penis, while at Karahan a life-size statue of a wild boar. carved from limestone was found. “Archaeologists detected red, black and white pigments on its surface, indicating that the sculpture was once painted.”^(by⁾<

^(a⁾Saudi Aramco World : The Beginning of the End for Hunter-Gatherers (archive.org)

⁽^c⁾https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/adam-s-calendar-oldest-megalithic-site-world-003160

^(d)https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taula

^(e)The Birth of Religion (archive.org)

^(f)https://web.archive.org/web/20200307093932/http://gobeklitepe.info/news.html

^(g)https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=14991

^(h) Wayback Machine (archive.org) (new link)

⁽ⁱ⁾https://web.archive.org/web/20080425092420/https://perso.wanadoo.es/chanches/menorca/taulas/binisaes.htm

^(j) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050908/Gobekli-Tepe-Temple-thats-6-500-years-older-Stonehenge-house.html

^(k) https://web.archive.org/web/20180215143747/https://timothystephany.com/gobekli.html

^(l) https://spredtetanker.wordpress.com/tag/atlantis/

^(m)https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=176228