32 Ancient Cities That Are Older Than the Pyramids

23. Göbekli Tepe, Turkey: The World's First Temple?

Mind-bendingly ancient, Göbekli Tepe (c. 9600-8200 BCE) features massive, intricately carved stone pillars erected by hunter-gatherers, millennia before pottery, farming, or the pyramids. This wasn't a city but likely a vast ritual complex, suggesting organized religion and complex social structures emerged far earlier than previously imagined. Its monumental T-shaped megaliths, adorned with animal reliefs, represent a revolutionary leap in human construction and symbolic thought, fundamentally reshaping our understanding of the Neolithic world and the very origins of communal building projects that would eventually lead to cities.