President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to attend a ceremony to celebrate the inclusion of the "world's oldest temple" Göbeklitepe in southeastern Şanlıurfa province in UNESCO's World Heritage List.
"We will organize a magnificent ceremony in Göbeklitepe with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ," Şanlıurfa Mayor Nihat Çiftçi said, adding the ceremony will be held in the near future.
"Göbeklitepe was flooded with domestic and foreign visitors after the monument was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List," Çiftçi added.
Göbeklitepe was added to the list during the ongoing 42nd UNESCO World Heritage Committee session in Manama, Bahrain, according to the Foreign Ministry on Sunday.
The ministry said "the world's oldest known megalithic structure located in Upper Mesopotamia dates back 11,000 years".
Göbeklitepe has been on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List since 2011. It was discovered in 1963 when researchers from Istanbul and Chicago universities were working at the site. Since then, the excavations have never stopped.
The German Archaeological Institute and Şanlıurfa Museum have done joint work at the site since 1995 and have found T-shaped obelisks from the Neolithic era measuring 3-6 meters (10-20 feet) high, and weighing 40-60 tons.
During the excavations, diverse historical artifacts like 65-centimeter-long (26-inch) human statues dating back 12,000 years were also discovered.
During preparations for its candidacy, a 4,000-square-meter steel roof was erected to protect the site.
After being temporarily closed to visitors due to restoration work, Göbeklitepe partially reopened in February.
