Aşıklı Höyük: Story of oldest village in central Turkey

The oldest village in Turkey's central Cappadocia region is keen to attract more tourists by offering a visit through its thousands of years old history.

Aşıklı Höyük, located 25 kilometers east of Turkey's central Aksaray province, is the oldest village settlement in Cappadocia region, dating back to 8,500 B.C., said Mihriban Özbaşaran, a prehistory archeology professor at Istanbul University.

Özbaşaran, also the head of the excavation team, asserted that the 10,500-year-old settlement should stand out more in the regional tourism.

"At the entrance [of Aşıklı Höyük], there are replicas we call 'experimental houses', in which we copied houses or living areas that we found in the mound," Özbaşaran told Anadolu Agency.

She said that tourists yearning for experiencing the life in the area show great interest in the "experimental houses".

"Especially, the entrance from the roof, fire lighting areas, animating people buried in the houses attract the attention of local and foreign tourists," Özbaşaran added.

A number of crucial discoveries have been made in the region since the excavations were launched 28 years ago, she said.

According to Özbaşaran, the process of transition from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles can be observed step by step in the region.

Aşıklı Höyük is also the first region in the Central Turkey where sheep and goat were domesticated, Özbaşaran said, adding: "We also see the first mining products here."

One of the first brain surgery examples was also found in the region in 1989, she stated.

"We have found the tomb of a group member who decided to settle permanently in the lowest layer of Aşıklı 10,500 years ago.

"This is one of the oldest people," she added.