A 9,000-year-old settlement in Turkey where people lived in tightly packed houses with no streets between them. Residents entered through holes in the roof and walked across their neighbors' rooftops. The site tests the limits of how closely humans can live together.
Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0
A City Without Streets
At Çatalhöyük, houses were built directly against one another in a dense, honeycomb-like cluster. There were no streets or alleyways. All movement happened across the flat rooftops of the settlement, and entry into a home was through an opening in the ceiling. Residents descended a wooden ladder, which usually rested against the south wall of the main room. The architecture, with its roof-based traffic, likely provided a strong defense against outsiders and wild animals.
The houses themselves were roughly rectangular and constructed from sun-dried mudbricks. The walls were about 30 centimeters thick and supported a flat roof made of timber and reeds packed with mud. Inside, a typical house consisted of one large main room, usually around 18 to 20 square meters, and one or two smaller ancillary rooms for storage. The main room was the center of daily life, with ovens and hearths situated directly below the roof opening for ventilation. Raised platforms along the walls served as areas for sleeping, working, and other domestic activities. All interior walls and platforms were coated in a smooth, clean layer of white plaster.
The Life Cycle of a House
The people of Çatalhöyük constantly maintained and rebuilt their homes. The interior plaster was renewed frequently, perhaps as often as every season or month, with some walls showing over 100 distinct layers. These plaster layers were for maintenance and they were canvases for art. Houses have wall paintings of geometric patterns, wild animals like bulls and deer, and dramatic hunting scenes. One famous painting shows a local volcanic eruption of Mount Hasan. Sculptural elements were also common, especially the plastered skulls of wild bulls, known as bucrania, whose horns were set into walls and benches.
A house was also the final resting place for its inhabitants. The people of Çatalhöyük practiced intramural burial, interring their dead in pits dug beneath the floors of their homes. Adults were typically placed under the platforms in the northern part of the main room, while infants and children were buried in more varied locations. Some houses contained over sixty individuals buried beneath the floor. When a house reached the end of its life, it was partially dismantled and carefully filled in before a new house was constructed directly on its foundations, often mirroring the layout of the one below. This continuous cycle of construction, burial, and rebuilding over 1,400 years created the settlement mound, or "tell," that exists today.
💡Fun Facts
The dead were often buried in a tightly flexed, fetal position.
Analysis of human remains shows that the people buried under a single house were generally not genetically related.
The experimental reconstruction of a Çatalhöyük house on-site helped archaeologists better understand building techniques, material decay, and the time required for construction.
Besides bulls' horns, the remains of other animals like weasel skulls, fox teeth, and vulture beaks were also incorporated into the house walls and platforms.
The site is open daily year-round, typically from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with slightly shorter hours in winter.
Admission
Admission is often free, though this can change. A small fee may apply.
Accessibility
The visitor center is wheelchair accessible, but the terrain of the archaeological mounds is uneven and not easily accessible for visitors with mobility concerns.
