PIRI REIS AND THE MYSTERY AT GÖBEKLITEPE

The latest title by Hans Christian Andersen Award 2018 nominee Mavisel Yener is Piri Reis and the Mystery at Göbeklitepe, a middle grade historical thriller. With exquisite creativity, Yener adorns real historical figures and events with fiction.

A fresh take on historical thrillers, this historically accurate fiction novel is both educational and fun-ucational. It’s an intriguing, breathtaking page turner. And last but not least, it’s the first ever children’s book about Göbeklitepe -a mysterious place both in fictional and real realms.

SYNOPSES: This is the fictional story of Piri Reis’ life, how he comes to draw his illustrious world map, all the hardships and obstacles he has to overcome during his works, how the map vanishes into thin air, and centuries later, it mysteriously turns up chiseled on a rock at an excavation site. And not just any excavation site but Göbeklitepe.

PIRI REIS: An Ottoman admiral, navigator, geographer, cartographer, and map collector who lived around the second half of 15th and first half of 16th centuries, Piri Reis has gained a fame all around the world with his surprisingly accurate charts and maps. His world map, widely known as Piri Reis Map, is one of the oldest New World maps and the most accurate world map of the 16th century, and a constant focus of interest among scholars due to many mysteries it holds. For one thing, it is a huge topic of discussion and a great mystery how Piri Reis mapped the South Pole two centuries before it was discovered.

GÖBEKLITEPE: Göbeklitepe (or Göbekli Tepe) is a site regarded as a groundbreaking discovery that can fundamentally change the previous assumption regarding the adoption of sedentary life and the understanding of Pre-Pottery Neolithic period by many archaeologists. Today, Göbeklitepe is regarded as the first ever settlement which dates back to 10th millennium BCE. There are many mysteries surrounding the site and every new discovery adds more to these mysteries instead of answering them. Consisting of four layers, it is unknown why every few decades the existing pillars were buried to be replaced by new stones. Pictograms and animal reliefs cannot be interpreted. And scholars cannot agree on one theory regarding how a population large enough to construct, augment, and maintain such a substantial complex was mobilized and compensated or fed in the conditions of pre-sedentary society.

Göbeklitepe is such a hot topic and a great enigma that even Netflix recently produced a series, The Gift, that takes place in the excavation site.

Translation: Yasemin Yener