Although Klaus Schmidt had spent many years in Turkey working at various archeological sites, the discovery of Gobekli Tepe exceeded his wildest expectations. He discovered an enormous number of flint fragments around the area. This was only a top of an iceberg. Carefully hewn stones and a circle of standing columns were found beneath the surface.
The findings made Schmidt realize that dozens or even hundreds of people had worked at the site thousands of years ago. Schmidt continued the excavation until his death in 2014 when his team took over. The excavations are supervised by experts from the German Archeological Institute in cooperation with the Sanliurfa Museum.
