Kyle A.
Yelp
What an amazing historical site! It's off the beaten path, to be sure. Our hotel's taxi wanted a 200 TL flat rate for the roundtrip from Konya and waiting time. It's worth every lira, though - the archaeological dig looks just like it does in photos, and they've done a pretty good job of providing interpretive signs and materials in English. You can explore a replica of what the houses actually looked like near the front gate, and then there's two big sheds containing the excavations that you can visit at your own pace.
As noted on TripAdvisor, this place is oddly devoid of tourists for a World Heritage Site and one of the oldest known human settlements. I distinctly remember a writing assignment where we imagined that we were traders visiting Catal Huyuk in my sixth grade world history class in Seattle Public Schools decades ago, but colleagues from the Middle East had no idea that such a place exists in their own (figurative) backyard. One thing to note is that, possibly in part because of the refreshingly light touch they take with security here, most actual artifacts dug up here are moved to museums pretty quickly - basically you're looking at the bare walls of the Neolithic dwellings and use your imagination to imagine what life was like 9,000 years ago. Still, it's an inspiring place to visit and well worth the time and expense to get there from Konya.
