Mystery of History; Cappadocia Underground Cities

Underground cities in Cappadocia are known as interesting and mysterious tourism destinations of the region. In addition to the architectural structure of the underground cities, the lifestyle and mysterious legends inside make these places much more attractive. Currently, there are over twenty underground cities of various sizes, but it is estimated that there are more than two hundred underground cities in the region that has yet to be discovered. Kaymaklı, Derinkuyu and Özkonak Underground Cities are the main underground cities in Cappadocia. Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu Underground Cities are the most popular underground cities in terms of tourism and the largest among the underground cities discovered so far. Özkonak, on the other hand, is smaller than the others.

Kaymakli Underground City

Kaymaklı Underground City is in the Kaymaklı Town of Nevşehir which is located approximately 20 km south of Nevşehir province. This underground city was discovered in 1964 when the wall of a villager’s house collapsed during his work to expand his house. Kaymaklı underground city is approximately 10 km away from Derinkuyu Underground City. The entrance to the underground city is made at the surface level. In the underground city, the red arrows show the descent to the underground, while the blue arrows show the ascent to the earth.

In the underground city, ascending down through the narrow passages, there exist many places such as rooms used for different purposes, living spaces, kitchens, food warehouses, mills, churches, graveyards, barns, wineries and schools. The barn is located close to the ground in order to provide animals with easy entry and exit to the underground city. There are different parts of the underground cities. There are round and hard stones at the transition points that separate these sections from each other. These stones blocked the passages during enemy attacks and provided shelter from the enemy by cutting off the connection with the outside world. The doors were designed in such a way that when locked, they can be easily opened from the inside, but they cannot be opened from the outside.

In the early Christian period, these underground cities were used as shelters to escape from the Roman soldiers. The underground city has a high bottom-up rectangular ventilation shaft. There are cracks on the wall to climb upwards through this chimney. It has not been yet fully discovered as to exactly how far down the underground city extends. Currently, one can only go 4 stories down which is about 15-20 meters from the surface. The underground city is mostly structured horizontally. Although the Kaymaklı underground city is more spacious than the Derinkuyu underground city, it still has tight and narrow passages.

Derinkuyu Underground City

Derinkuyu Underground City is located in Derinkuyu district, 30 km south of Nevşehir. It is 10 minutes away from Kaymaklı Underground City. Derinkuyu Underground City is the largest underground city known in the region. The underground city is approximately 85 m deep, but only 10% of the city is open to visitors. The descent to Derinkuyu is provided by a passage built today. Derinkuyu has narrower passages compared to Kaymaklı and is quite challenging for those with claustrophobia.

There are rooms opening to the right and left sides of the tunnel passages. There are vertical entrances at some points and these entrances are covered with iron gratings for security reasons. Here, too, there are ventilation shafts from the bottom to the surface. These shafts go down to the groundwater level. In Derinkuyu, just like the ones in Kaymaklı, there are large round stones that block the passage between different sections. Besides the living quarters, Derinkuyu also has a church and a missionary school. There is also a legend that there are secret passage tunnels connecting Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı underground cities with encrypted traps embedded in certain parts of these tunnels which can lead to imminent death for the person who does not know the pass code.

Ozkonak Underground City

Located in a different region from Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu, Özkonak Underground City is in the town of Özkonak, 14 km from Avanos. The underground city was built on the northern slope of İdiş Mountain where volcanic tuff structures are dense. The underground city was discovered when a citizen living in the region noticed the water leaking down while watering his garden and scraped the places where the water went. The structure of the underground city is similar to Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı underground cities. In the living quarters there are passage tunnels, rooms, winery, kitchen, barn, and a ventilation duct. Unlike Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu, Özkonak has separate channels that provide communication between floors.