7th millennium BC

An excavation team that has been working at Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia for decades has come the closest yet to solving some of the mysteries surrounding the Neolithic site's earliest structures, according to the head of the dig.

Çatalhöyük's inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List has done wonders for tourism at the 9,000-year-old site in Central Anatolia, according to the head of the excavations at the site, Professor Ian Hodder. 

"There has been an increase in the number of tourists. Çatalhöyük has become the center of archaeological tourism," he said.