Çatalhöyük

9,000-year-old Neolithic city, one of the earliest large human settlements

Çatalhöyük, 50 km southeast of Konya, is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world: a Neolithic city, occupied between roughly 7400 and 5600 BC, which gives us our best picture of what early settled human society looked like. UNESCO-listed since 2012, it has been under excavation continuously since the late 1950s.

The visitor centre at the site is small but well-presented, with reconstructions of the typical Neolithic house, displays of finds (the best material is in the Konya Archaeological Museum back in town), and explanations of the ongoing dig. The excavated mounds themselves — two of them, East and West — are covered with protective shelters, under which you can see the foundations of houses, hearths, and wall paintings in situ.

A day trip from Konya by taxi or car takes about an hour each way; there is no convenient public transport. The site is remote, on a flat stretch of agricultural land, and offers no shade — visit early or late on a summer day, and bring water. Allow about two hours.

things to do sight
A story
At its peak around 7000 BC, Çatalhöyük housed perhaps 8,000 people in a labyrinth of mud-brick houses packed so tightly together that there were no streets — residents entered through holes in the roofs and walked from house to house along the rooftops. The dead were buried under the floors of the same rooms in which the living slept. The wall paintings — hunting scenes, geometric patterns, hand-prints — are among the earliest art in any settled human society.

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