The World’s Most Famous Megaliths: The History of Göbekli Tepe, Stonehenge, and the Megalithic Temples of Malta

Despite the fact some Neolithic communities grew to considerable sizes, they’re typically not considered when people think of the first ancient civilizations or the first major cities, so when German archaeologists discovered the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey in the 1990s, it created an academic firestorm that is still raging. Far from being just another settlement, Göbekli Tepe has been described as the world’s first temple and perhaps one of the locations where human civilization began. Subsequent archaeological work at Göbekli Tepe has revealed that the site was a spiritual center for the local population during a time when humans were undergoing a transition as hunter-gatherers in the Paleolithic Period to a more sedentary lifestyle in the Neolithic Period, more than 10,000 years ago.

Naturally, when European archaeologists began unearthing the megaliths of Malta in the 19th century, they did not know what to think, which led to a plethora of theories, many of them quite fantastic. At least 23 of these temples were uncovered, but because the people who built them lacked the knowledge of writing, speculation over who built them and why remained well into the 20th century (Rountree 2003, 26). Some people theorized that the Malta megaliths were built by a race of giants, while others believed that it was the center of a “Mother Earth” cult that later spread through Neolithic Europe.

On the Salisbury Plain, only a few hours from the hustle and bustle of Central London, remains one of the greatest surviving relics of humanity's ancient past: the mighty stone circle of Stonehenge. Stonehenge is one of the most well-known ancient sites in the world, and an image of it raises numerous associations and emotional responses. Its impressiveness comes not only from its size and remarkable level of preservation, but more so because of incredible precision during an era of simple technology.

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