Sean Thomas

Is an unknown, extraordinarily ancient civilisation buried under eastern Turkey?

Karahan Tepe site (Photo: iStock)

I am staring at about a dozen, stiff, eight-foot high, orange-red penises, carved from living bedrock, and semi-enclosed in an open chamber. A strange carved head (of a man, a demon, a priest, a God?), also hewn from the living rock, gazes at the phallic totems – like a primitivist gargoyle.

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