World's oldest temple found in TurkeyMar 24, 2010

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Turkish archeologists announced about finding the ruins of the oldest temple. As Hurriyet newspaper reports, the temple is 12,000 year old. This temple was discovered on the hill Gobeklitepe near Harran, an ancient city in the south-east province of Turkey called Sanliurfa near the border with Syria. The sanctuary in Gobeklitepe has been discovered earlier, however the recently found statuettes make it the most ancient place of worship ever discovered. Before this discovery in Gobeklitepe, the world's oldest known temple was a structure dating from 5000 BC in Malta.

The statuettes are adorned with wolf heads, pigs, storks, foxes, fawns, scorpions, snakes and headless human figures. The T-shaped columns are the major architectural feature of the temple; they represent a depiction of male genitals, according to scientists. The scientists consider that it's hard to identify which culture the builders of the temple in Gobeklitepe belonged to.

The regions of Harran and Sanliurfa are the most ancient permanent places of residence of the world. According the legends (not the Bible), Adam and Eve were there. It says in the Bible that the prophet Abraham lived in Harran. According to Muslim legends, the prophet Abraham was from Urfa (Christian name – Edessa, nowadays – Sanliurfa) and spent some time in Harran. There is a well near Harran, where, by the Muslim legend, the prophet Yusef was thrown into by his jealous brothers. In the 7th century BC Harran was a center of worship of the Assyrian god of the moon Sin. There are also the ruins of the ancient educational establishment preserved here, which scientists call the most ancient university in the world.