Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic town on the Konya Plain

For nearly two thousand years, several thousand people lived at Çatalhöyük in tightly packed mudbrick houses entered through the roof, burying their dead beneath the floors and painting the walls. Its figurines, including a seated woman flanked by big cats, and studies of diet and burial suggest that women and men held broadly similar status. It is among the best-preserved early farming towns anywhere.