Çatalhöyük welcome center brings 9,000-year-old neolithic site to life

In Konya's Çumra district, visitors to the digital world of Çatalhöyük, a UNESCO World Heritage site that sheds light on 9,000 years of history, can travel back in time. The Çatalhöyük Promotion and Welcome Center, opened by the Greater Municipality of Konya 14 months ago, helps promote the Neolithic site, where around 8,000 people once lived together.

Since its opening, the center has attracted significant interest from both local and foreign visitors. At the center, they can explore the city's roofless houses, wall drawings, figurines of men and women, bones and claws of predators, multi-chambered graves, and traces of early agriculture through interactive and digital screens.

Replicas of significant findings from Çatalhöyük—one of the earliest urban settlements in the world—are also on display, offering a glimpse into discoveries that have advanced excavation and scientific research.

"WE TAKE VISITORS 9,000 YEARS BACK WITH INTERACTIVE AND DIGITAL DEVICES"

Gülsün Ergen, the manager of the Çatalhöyük Promotion and Welcome Center, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the wooden-constructed center is one of the first of its kind in Turkey.

Highlighting the center's contribution to the promotion of the Çatalhöyük archaeological site, Ergen said, "In the past 1 year and 2 months, we have hosted more than 131,000 local and foreign visitors. We provide information on many topics, such as the lifestyle, animal species, plant life, and archaeological excavations of that period. We take visitors back 9,000 years with interactive and digital devices, which they can use without a guide. Our visitors typically spend 1.5 to 2 hours here. Replica artworks are exhibited, and we also have a 260-seat conference hall and a café. The center functions as a museum. Visitors can experience a model of a house from that era. You enter a house from 9,000 years ago, imagining the life of a family back then, which is truly exciting. Our visitors share that the center is beautiful, and the services provided are invaluable."

Ergen also noted that the original artifacts are displayed at the Museum of Civilizations in Ankara and the Konya Archaeology Museum, with visitors often touring the excavation site afterward.