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In our last show on May 27th of 2018, we took you back in time 11,500 years to the creation of the

world's first known temple at Gabekli Teppa, a place that changed everything we understood

about the lives, abilities, and knowledge of early mankind, who at the time were still hunting

and gathering to stay alive. Somehow, they transitioned from that lifestyle to a sedentary one

that began to take advantage of the cultivation of crops, but not before figuring out how to quarry

15-toned stones with intricately carved animals and human-like features on them,

moving them hundreds of yards and then standing them up and aligning them possibly towards

specific stars the night sky, and for what reason? We can't know because Gabekli Teppa predates

recorded history by 6,000 years, but we can't speculate. In order to speculate, however,

we must steep ourselves in the knowledge that we do have about ancient cultures,

knowledge that has been handed down over the centuries and even millennia.

There are clues throughout the creation stories of nearly every global culture that might hint

in what may have been on the minds of the builders of Gabekli Teppa. Legends abound of

cataclysmic events that radically altered the face of the earth and sent humanity scrambling

for cover, struggling to survive at all. Is it possible mankind was barely embracing the ideas

of civilization, but it was nearly wiped out completely at forced to start over? This is just one

possibility of many that may describe why Gabekli Teppa was built.

Welcome back to Estonishing Legends. I'm Scott Philbrook and this is Forrest Burgess.

We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art and religion.

Now, the world's oldest temple suggests the urge to worship, spark civilization,

...