The houses under the shelters
Wooden walkways look down into streetless mudbrick houses, plastered walls and hearths left as they were nine thousand years ago.
CC BY-SA 3.0 · Carl Campbell — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Middle_East_topographic_map-blank.svg: Sémhur (talk) derivative work: PequoD76(talk) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wolfgang Sauber — CC BY-SA 4.0
Nine thousand years ago, before anyone had thought of a city, thousands of people lived here in mudbrick houses packed so tightly that the town had no streets at all. They walked across the rooftops, climbed down wooden ladders through a hole in the ceiling, and buried their dead under the floor of the room they slept in. This is Çatalhöyük, one of the oldest and largest settlements known anywhere (roughly 7500 to 5600 BC) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012. There are no temples or columns; what you see are plastered clay walls, hearths and cut-away floors, but the story they tell outweighs any stone. Start in the new visitor centre, opened in 2023 with models, reconstructed rooms and copies of the wall paintings, then climb the East Mound, where two enormous shelters cover the excavation areas and wooden walkways let you look down into houses stacked like honeycomb. The North shelter was temporarily closed at the time of writing, so ask at the kiosk. Near the entrance stands an experimental house rebuilt with the original techniques, and it is the part that stays with you: you enter through the roof, stand in the gloom and suddenly understand how people lived. The celebrated finds, the seated woman flanked by leopards and the finest murals, are not here: they are in the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara, with others in Konya's Archaeological Museum, so call in there before leaving town. The site sits on an exposed plain about 50 km south-east of Konya, roughly an hour by car via the town of Çumra and then 11 km on to the village of Küçükköy. There is no regular public transport; a hire car or a Konya taxi that waits for you is the practical answer, or a minibus to Çumra and a local taxi from there, and ask your hotel whether the summer visitor bus from Mevlana Square is running this season. In August the heat is brutal and there is no shade outside the shelters, so make it your first stop of the morning; in winter a cold steppe wind blows and the shelters are unheated. The boardwalks are easy going but the climb up the mound is not wheelchair-friendly, and small children go free, but be honest with yourself: children are bored within half an hour, except in the experimental house. The verdict: anyone who was gripped by Göbekli Tepe or reads about the dawn of settled life will happily give this a full day; anyone passing through Konya for Rumi and the bazaars can skip it without regret. Tickets are about 5 euros for foreign visitors, the site is open daily from 9am to 5pm, and the last ticket is sold twenty minutes before closing.
Wooden walkways look down into streetless mudbrick houses, plastered walls and hearths left as they were nine thousand years ago.
A rebuilt house you enter from the roof by wooden ladder, and the one part of the site children genuinely enjoy.
Opened in 2023 with models and copies of the murals that decode what you will see on the mound, so start here rather than finish here.
Küçükköy Mahallesi, Çumra, Konya
Honestly, no. You will see excavated mud walls under shelters, and the famous finds are displayed in Ankara and Konya. With a single day in Konya, spend it on the Mevlana Museum and the Archaeological Museum and leave Çatalhöyük to prehistory enthusiasts.
There is no regular bus. The easiest fix is a Konya taxi that waits for you (agree a half-day rate with the driver), or a minibus to Çumra and a local taxi for the last 11 km to Küçükköy. Some summers a visitor bus runs from Mevlana Square, so ask at your hotel. Allow an hour each way and carry water, as the site is fully exposed.
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