With permission from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, excavations began in 1995 and uncovered Neolithic-era T-shaped pillars standing 3 to 6 meters tall and weighing 40 to 60 tons, featuring carvings of wild animals.
Gaining increasing fame with its Neolithic-era artifacts, Göbeklitepe was added to the UNESCO Tentative List in 2011 and became a World Heritage Site in 2018.
