Explore Turkey's 3 Ancient Underground Cities: Kaymaklı, Derinkuyu & More
Turkey is an awesome country full of beautiful landscapes, interesting places, and great tourist attractions. This time, on our travel blog, we will get deep down and discover three underground cities in Turkey.
That's right, underground cities in Turkey. There are three main places we would like to show you: Kaymaklı Underground City, Derinkuyu Underground City, and Özkonak Underground City. All they are slightly different and one of them has 18 levels underground and it is thought to have been able to protect 20 000 inhabitants for long periods of time! So let's start to discover those interesting places!
Kaymaklı Underground City
You can find a lot of underground cities in Turkey's Cappadocia, but the Kaymaklı Underground City is the best one from them. It is said that some of those places were built around 2000 BCE and expanded in time by later civilizations. There are a lot of quarters and chambers here for different purposes: stables, rooms for living, storage or even for making a wine.
Kaymaklı Underground City was not built for defense (like Özkonak) and it's not as deep as Derinkuyu, but this one has a lot of space and it's much wider than any other underground city in Turkey. It has eight floors of subterranean defense, but right now only four of them are open for tourists.
Interesting fact: Many of the chambers and tunnels in Kaymaklı Underground City are still used by the local people for storage or even for living purposes.
Derinkuyu Underground City
Derinkuyu Underground City was discovered when a man found a hidden room behind a wall in his home :-) Further digging showed the whole complex. Can you imagine?
Derinkuyu Underground City was probably built about 8th century BCE by an ancient people as a fortress to provide protection against invading armies. During the Byzantine time, it was rebuilding and expanding and finally became a huge hidden complex that was able to provide a shelter for 20 000 people for long months, mostly because of advanced defense innovations.
The Derinkuyu hidden city has 18 levels deep underground and this is the deepest underground city in Turkey. It also has thousands of ventilation shafts to provide fresh air and multiple waterways to provide drinking water to every floor. You are able to find here chambers not only for a living but also stables for horses, storage, winery or even churches. There were also huge stone wheels made of stone that could be rolled to close all the entrances. And if we are talking about the entrances, more than 600 has been found nowadays. Impressive, isn't it? The Derinkuyu is the biggest underground city in Turkey and it's a must-see tourist attraction in Cappadocia.
Özkonak Underground City
We are unable to determine an exact age of Özkonak Underground City, but it probably dates back to antique times. We can be sure that it was used in Middle Ages because hot oil holes were found above the entrances and that advanced technology hasn't been used before medieval times. It was discovered in 1972 by a Turkish farmer.
One unique thing in Özkonak Underground City is that there is a communication system installed so that each level could talk to the one above or below. The hidden city has ten floors, but only four of them are open to tourists and visitors. It's a great place and a great adventure, where you can feel how people lived here in ancient times.
Conclusion
Turkey has a lot of great places and those three underground cities are definitely one of them. If you enjoyed this article or have some questions about this hidden cities or Turkey, feel free to leave me a comment in the section below.
