Çatalhöyük ancient city helps Konya become a tourism hub

KONYA - Anatolia News Agency

As part of the Tourism Week diplomats visited Çatalhöyük site in Konya. AA Photo

Young diplomats from all over the world have visited the ancient city of Çatalhöyük ancient city as part of Tourism Week events, which were organized as part of a new initiative to attract tourists to the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

Diplomats took information from guides while attending a reception for the week.

The manager of the Konya Culture and Tourism Directorate organized the event. Konya Mayor Aydın Nezih Doğan said the aim of the week was to revive Konya’s tourism potential.

Noting that there were many plans in terms of reviving tourism, he said: “There are new plans such as building a new fast train infrastructure or remaking roads. With these new plans, Konya will become a new tourism hub.”

The 9,000-year-old civilization at Çatalhöyük, an ancient settlement in Konya’s Çumra district included on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list, is first set to come alive with four experimental houses.

The houses will bring to the forefront animal paintings that were important for the people living in Anatolia nine millennia ago and will include figures of leopards, bulls and vultures.