Karahantepe

Karahantepe or Karahan Tepe is an archaeological site located in the Şanlıurfa province of Türkiye. It is known among the public as "Girê Keçel" in Kurdish. Karahantepe, which is 46 km away from the city center, was first discovered by Bahattin Çelik in 1997. The first excavations in the area where 250 obelisks thought to date back to the Neolithic period were found, began in September 2019.

Special structures contemporary with Göbekli Tepe and a human statue carrying a leopard on its back were unearthed during the excavations in Karahantepe. The statues were put on display at the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum.

It is thought that the AB Structure, carved into the main rock with a size of 8×6 meters, was built for special purposes. There is a human head in the middle of the long wall of the structure. A man is depicted on the head, whose neck resembles a snake, emerging from the rock. Opposite this head, four phallus-shaped obelisks are placed in the front row and six in the back row. The structure was accessed by a staircase from one side and by another staircase from the other side. In the context of all this, it is thought that the structure had a ritualistic function.