Underground Cities Of Ancient Turkey

The famous Derinkuyu Underground City was first discovered in 1963, when a surface house was renovated and a wall caved in to reveal an underground room that led to a subterranean passage.

- Karen Mutton

The workers found that it led further into a deep labyrinth which was 18 storeys deep, carved from soft tufa stone to a depth of up to 260 feet (~80 m). Researchers found kitchens, bedrooms, food storage rooms, oil and wine presses, wells, armouries, schools, tombs and domestic animal stables. More than fifty ventilation shafts brought in air from above, while thousands of smaller ducts distributed that air throughout the entire city.

Because it is stone and non-organic, it is difficult to accurately date the underground city but it possibly originated during the Hittite period from 1600 to 1200 BCE. Some experts theorise that the Phrygians built the city when they occupied Anatolia from 1200 to 800 BCE.

The earliest mention of underground cities in Cappadocia came from the Greek historian Xenophon in 370 BCE. In his work, Anabasis, he wrote:

"The houses here were underground, with a mouth like that of a well, but spacious below; and while entrances were tunnelled down for the beasts of burden, the human inhabitants descended by a ladder. In the houses were goats, sheep, cattle, fowls, and their young; and all the animals were reared and took their fodder there in the houses."

Anatolia has long been a major trade hub between Asia and Europe, and has been invaded and conquered repeatedly by different groups for thousands of years. The Romans conquered the lands of Cappadocia in 17 BCE and made it into a Roman province under Tiberius. In the early days of Christianity, Christian colonies used the underground cities as refuge from Roman persecutions.

After the 7th century CE, Muslims forced Christians once again into hiding, including many Greek Christians who expanded Derinkuyu further during the invasions.