Derinkuyu Underground City
An ancient underground city where 20,000 people once lived
According to archaeologists at the Ministry of Culture of Turkey, the first gallery was carved in Derinkuyu by the Phrygians, an ancient Indian-European culture that founded the Kingdom of Anatolia (12th-7th centuries BC) in the 8th-7th centuries BC. The Phrygians are a leader in the Iron Age and are known for their involvement in complex mega-construction projects. Other theories suggest that the underground city was founded by Persians or Hittites.
One of the first possible descriptions of Derinkuyu is credited in 370 BC. This is in the text written by Xenophon in Athens. AnabAs it is, Anatolians say they have excavated their homes underground. He added that these underground dwellings were large enough to supply families, livestock, and stored food.
Derinkuyu seems to have peaked during the Byzantine era.By this time, it had grown into a large multi-level complex consisting of tunnels and room mazes covering an area of 445 km.2 (172 miles2). Derinkuyu is estimated to have a population of 20,000.
The depth of the Derinkuyu Underground City is approximately 85 meters. This underground city has sections such as stables, cellars, dining halls, churches, and stum shops. There is also a missionary school on the 2nd floor. The 55 meters deep ventilation shaft, which is connected to the surface, is also used as water well. Only ten percent of the underground city of Derinkuyu, which was opened in 1965, can be visited today.
The oldest floors of the underground cities are generally the entrance floors, which were mostly used as stables. This is due to the difficulty of getting the animals to lower floors. In underground cities that are warm both in winter and summer, stum shops and kitchens are generally on the upper floors. Stum shops, where grapes obtained from the region were processed and turned into wine, were built mostly on the upper floors for easy transportation of grapes. Considering the number of kitchens, it is seen that not every family had a kitchen and they used kitchens jointly. In the kitchens, there are stoves for cooking called “Tandoor” that are still used in towns and villages of Cappadocia.
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