Traveling through Turkey with my Kurdish driver, Yusuf

Yusuf in Göbekli Tepe
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Yusuf, my beautiful Kurdish driver who watched over me and took me to Göbekli Tepe in 2015 and would occasionally serenade me with his songs. Around lunchtime one day he abruptly turned off the road and headed into I don’t know what. I thought this was it–my kidnapping. Nope. It was my lunch. He knew this great little place–tent–with the most fab food. We were the only ones there, and he continued to educate me and tell me stories. I can’t verify this or absolutely agree with it, but, in the main, Kurdish people are the finest people on this earth. And the photo is one of the monumental pieces from Göbekli Tepe now the oldest known “temple”. 9,000 BCE. This finding, still in excavation, pushed hunter-gathering culture back 2 millennia–think about that. Because of Göbekli Tepe we now have to rewrite human history. I just had to go see it for myself.

Göbekli Tepe
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Göbekli Tepe March 2015

“Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it’s the site of the world’s oldest temple.”

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/#CCtatfSmd8lJTTGW.99

Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015
Göbekli Tepe Don Michael Hudson, PhD March 2015