Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük is the remains of a Stone Age town in the South Central Anatolia region of Turkey. In 2012 it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Understand

Reconstructed decor of Çatalhöyük

Meaning "forked mound" in Turkish, Çatalhöyük is the remains of a town occupied in the Stone Age, 7500 BC to 5700 BC. It's thus one of the oldest known towns, from the period when people were abandoning a nomadic way of life for settled agriculture and dwellings. It's now thought to have housed some 600 to 800 residents, a tenth of the initial estimates. It was abandoned for unknown reasons before the Bronze Age introduced metal-working.

The buildings are mud-brick: a river once ran through the site, so there were ample deposits of clay for building and for pottery, and the soil was fertile. But mud-brick soon washes away in the rain and has to be replaced: structures at Çatalhöyük were preserved by becoming buried, so now that they're exposed, a canopy has been placed over them.

All the buildings appear to be individual dwellings mostly of two rooms, with no communal or ritual structures, or "palaces" for a ruling class. It looks as though some houses doubled as shrines, and perhaps ceremonial assemblies were open-air. Their dead were buried within the houses. Strikingly there were no streets, houses were jammed together, with occupants clambering in and out through gaps in the walls. Some activities may have been on the roofs, which coalesced into a sort of plaza.

The site was first excavated by James Mellaart from 1958 to 1965. But then he got into trouble and was banned from Turkey over artifacts allegedly missing from another site near Bursa. Work resumed from 1993 to 2018 under Ian Hodder, and continues under Ali Umut Türkcan.

Get in

Çatalhöyük is 42 km southeast of Konya, see that page for long distance transport.

With your own wheels, head southeast along Saraçoğlu Cd. Otherwise, quickest and simplest is to negotiate with a taxi in Konya to bring you here, wait an hour (which is plenty) then ferry you back.

The nearest place with regular public transport is the town of Çumra 12 km south, with an hourly bus from Konya Karatay Station, and trains on the Konya-Karaman line every couple of hours. From Çumra your choices are:

• Taxi to the site: in 2024 a return ride costs 1000 TL.
• Buses run M-Sa six times a day to Karkin, 3 km from the site.
• Hitchhiking should be easy enough.

In summer a direct bus may run to the site from Konya, ask around.

Fees and permits

The site is open Tuesday-Sunday 09:00-17:00, free of charge.

Get around

The site consists of a new visitor centre (wheelchair accessible) and an older smaller centre, some reconstructed Neolithic housing just off the archaeological site, and two mounds that cover the original settlement. Each mound has a large shelter that contains the digs. The archaeological site has limited accessibility, which should be improved when an upgrade of the pathways is completed in January 2025.

See and do

1 Visitor Centre is first stop, to learn about the site and its ongoing archaeology.

Then enter the reconstructed housing to see how the people might have lived.

Then ascend the first mound to view the excavated town.

Buy

A shelter protects the mud-brick houses

There is a small gift shop in the visitor centre just to the right as you enter.

Eat

The onsite cafe sells coffee, tea, water and snacks for reasonable prices.

A street-vendor may also set up his stand for snacks and drinks.

Drink

No alcoholic drinks are sold.

Sleep

There is nowhere to sleep here or near by. Stay in Konya and visit as a day trip.

Stay safe

The site is staffed and secure.

Connect

The site has a patchy 4G signal from all Turkish carriers. As of Oct 2024, 5G has not rolled out in Turkey.

Go next

• Konya needs a day or two to see its Seljuk architecture.
• Karaman has an old citadel and is on the routes to Adana and the ferry port for Northern Cyprus.

Routes through Çatalhöyük

Muğla ← Konya ←	W  E	→ (N / S) → Niğde → Ends at (W E)
END ← Konya ←	N  S	→ Karaman → Silifke