During the 1960s, the excavations here, led by archaeologist James Mellaart, created worldwide headlines when the team announced the discovery of a large 9,000-year-old Neolithic settlement.

Hugely important in archaeological terms, the excavations here provide a window into the agrarian lifestyle of early Neolithic communities. It is especially notable for its massive size, the unique layout of its dwellings, and the settlement’s long duration.

Some 18 meters high and 12 hectares in area, the Çatalhöyük settlement mound is part of a much larger complex covering a total of 21 hectares, of which only about five percent has so far been excavated.

The date of the very earliest settlement here is claimed to be 6250 BCE, while traces of fire suggest that the last of the 10 settlements uncovered was abandoned around 5400 BCE.

The Çatalhöyük mound is just one of many places on the vast plains near Konya known to have been occupied between the 7th and 3rd millennia BCE. More recent sedimentation has since rendered many settlement mounds unrecognizable, and virtually the entire plains area has been brought under the plow. The earliest levels at Çatalhöyük now lie buried more than two meters below the surface of the surrounding plain.