Gobekli Tepe, Turkey

Visiting the ancient site of Gobekli Tepe has been a bucket list item for me ever since I heard about it in 2010. Monuments older than the Greeks, Egyptians, and Sumerians? Monuments and artefacts that challenge our current models of human history? I’m in!

In June 2025, I made it to the dig site. The trip was nearly everything I had hoped for!! I say nearly because I wanted to visit the space before it became roped off from walking within and among the pillars. Many online pictures still show being able to walk on wooden planks down in and around the site. Now when you go, you are on an elevated platform and fenced off. Did the roping off of the area diminish my visit or reduce the power of being there? Absolutely not. The Turkish government and its hired providers have done a great job ensuring you can really get a sense of the place.

Okay, so onto how I went and visited Gobekli Tepe, so you can go and do it too. You will see that once you are in Sanilurfa, you do not need to spend the hundreds of dollars to join a tour. You can very easily visit the site for around $30 from Sanliurfa Turkey, and this includes ground transportation!

Our journey starts with landing at Sanliurfa airport (GAP is the airport code). It is a small airport and easy to navigate. To get to the town of Sanliurfa (where I based my Gobeli Tepe travels from), you can take a taxi or the Havas bus to the city center, then make your way to your lodging. I took the Havas bus. I found the bus idling and loading passengers right outside the exit down near where baggage is claimed. I boarded the bus and sat down. After several more locals boarded the bus, the driver walked from person to person collecting the fare. I was told by someone he takes credit cards, so I had mine ready to tap on his credit card reader. I will note that I did see several people pay with cash. The cost was 160 Lira, or about $4.25 USD.

As we went along, I was worried I wouldn’t know where or what was considered city center for sure, so I turned on my smartphone and put in my hotel’s address. I then had my phone do a “directions” action, as if I was driving. I watched as the miles clicked off and we got closer and closer to my hotel. Once we were under 5K away, I knew I could get off and walk in easily. Three times along the way, the driver would yell out something, I would see a hand or two go up, and he would stop. I just sat and watched as people kept getting off, and by the time we got to the buses final stop, there were only 6 of us left. It was obvious it was the end point as there were several other buses and not too far away a giant bus terminal for the local city buses. I didn’t note exact ride times, but it was about 45 minutes.

Getting off, I walked to my hotel following Google maps. This worked great! It took me 25 minutes. I did learn later that I could have went to the city bus station I had seen and jumped on bus 63 and significantly cut down on my walking time.

At my hotel, I figured out how to get to the Archaeological Museum. I found the information about the museum a bit confusing as there are several names for it. My guess is that at one time there were three different museums all at the same facility and it was combined into one big, awesome museum.

The next day, at around 7:30am, I walked from my hotel to the Archaeological Museum. I bought a museum pass for the day and verified with museum person where and when I should catch Bus 0 to the Gobekli Tepe site. They told me where the bus stop was and said it runs every :45 after the hour. Well, it was 8:30am (the museum just opened) and so I headed right to the bus stop. I wanted to visit the site as early as possible to avoid the heat and any big crowds.

Bus 0 Pulling In

The bus stop looks so ordinary! It is a plain, city bus stop; there are no special markings on it (like, Bus 0, or Gobekli Tepe bus) so I was a bit concerned that I was in the wrong spot. However, Google maps confirmed I was in the right spot.

I got on bus 0, tapped my credit card on the reader, and sat down. It was 36 Lira (about $1).

As the bus made its way out to Gobeli Tepe, it did make some stops where locals got on and off. One of the stops was the city bus station I had seen when I first arrived via the Havas bus. My guess is that you can get on Bus 0 there too, but I don’t know.

Take the local bus like this, bus 0, was awesome. You really get to see some local life.

After 40 minutes, we arrived at the site entrance and the bus pulled in a corral that had several other tour busses in it.

After jumping off the bus, I made my way to the ticket office and purchased a site and museum entrance ticket. The price was listed in Euros (21 Euros). I asked if I could pay in cash with Lira, and the cashier said yes. With a credit card tap, I was handed my ticket and pointed towards the museum to go through. The museum was okay from an artefact perspective (the better museum for artifacts is in Sanliurfa, where I got on the bus), but the audio-visual presentation was great!

After following the walking path within the museum, I was pointed towards a large wooden walkway. The total time in the museum was 10 minutes.

I followed the wooden walkway to the top of a small hill, where I then saw to my right a shuttle bus pick up point.

To get to the shuttle pickup spot, you have to have your site visit ticket scanned as the spot is behind gates.

After waiting there 5 minutes, a small shuttle bus arrived and everyone was crammed on, with many of us standing (like me!). The driver drove like a bat out of hell all the way up a very narrow road, twisting and turning. People were bouncing all around in there! I found it comical. Anyway, then the magnificent site emerged!!!We were let off, and it was obvious where to go now, just follow the laid out walkway.

You can walk everything on the actual site in 20 minutes. However, if you want to really study it, be sure to walk it slowly and in both directions (clockwise and counterclockwise). I did, and I took my time. I marveled at everything, searching for all the hidden gems. Be sure to look around and not just within the enclosed space, there are neat finds everywhere. I am sure I missed things. There are lots of placards all around to help explain the many areas of the site. I spent about an hour and 15 minutes there, marveling and vibing. I could have stayed even longer. It was incredible.

I made my way to where the shuttle dropped me off (there is a small shop selling drinks, etc.) and boarded the shuttle for the roller coaster ride back down. The driver did not disappoint, we rocketed down the hill! Once off vomit express, I went to where Bus 0 had dropped me off. The bus was not there! I asked a guy at the bus coral shack if I was in the right place for bus 0, he looked at his watch, and said yes. He seemed surprised it was not there. It was 10:56am. The bus back was to leave on the hour, every hour. I stood in the area and at 11:02am the bus showed up. It was not exactly at the same drop off point (within the bus coral), but just outside of the coral in within a short walk from the coral. I climbed aboard and as I went to tap my credit card on the reader, the guy just waved me back so I sat down without tapping my credit card. The ride back followed the exact route out except in reverse. It took 35 minutes to get back to the archeological museum.

So, all in, to visit Gobekli Tepe from Sanilurfa Turkey, it cost me about $25 USD. About a dollar to ride Bus 0 to and from the site plus the 21 Euros to step onto the site itself and its museum. You will find this to be waaaaaaay cheaper than the organized tours from Sanilurfa. Tack on the Havas bus rides (about $8.50 round trip) from the airport, and you are at $33.50.

There are a lot of things to see and do in and around Sanilurfa, so you can bake in an extra day or two to do other stuff.

I hope this information helps inspire you to go!

Sincerely,

Wandering Will aka Dr. Will