Derinkuyu, also called Elengubu, is an ancient underground city located near the modern town of Derinkuyu in Nevşehir Province, Turkey. It is situated about 85 meters (280 feet) below the surface and has many levels. The city was large enough to provide shelter for up to 20,000 people, along with their animals and food supplies. It is the largest underground city discovered in Turkey and is one of several underground structures found in the region of Cappadocia.

Features

The underground city at Derinkuyu had large stone doors that could be rolled shut from the inside. Each floor could be sealed off individually.

The city could hold up to 20,000 people and included features found in other underground places in Cappadocia, such as wine and oil presses, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, and chapels. A unique part of the Derinkuyu complex is a large room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling on the second floor. This room was used as a religious school, and the rooms to the left were used as study areas.

Between the third and fourth levels, there are staircases that lead to a church on the fifth level, which is the lowest part of the city.

A large 55-meter (180-foot) ventilation shaft was used as a well. This shaft provided water to the people living above ground and, if the outside world was not reachable, to those hiding underground.

History

Caves may have been created in the soft volcanic rock of the Cappadocia region by the Phrygians between the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Later, during Roman times, when the Greek language replaced the Phrygian language, the people living there expanded their caves into large, multi-level structures. They added chapels and carved Greek writing into the walls.

The underground city at Derinkuyu was completely built during the Byzantine era. This city was connected to another underground city, Kaymakli, by tunnels that were 8–9 km (5.0–5.6 mi) long. Artifacts found in these underground areas date back to the Middle Byzantine Period, which lasted from the 5th to the 10th centuries.

These underground cities were used by Christian people for safety during attacks by Timur’s forces in the 14th century. After the region was controlled by the Ottomans, the local people used the tunnels as hiding places (Cappadocian Greek: καταφύγια) to escape from Turkish rulers.

In the 20th century, Cappadocian Greeks and Armenians still used the underground cities to avoid being harmed during times of persecution. Richard MacGillivray Dawkins, a linguist from Cambridge who studied the Cappadocian Greek-speaking people between 1909 and 1911, recorded an event in 1909: “When news of recent massacres at Adana arrived, many people in Axo went into the underground chambers for safety and did not sleep above ground for several nights.”

In 1923, the Christian people living in the region were moved from Turkey to Greece as part of a population exchange between Greece and Turkey. After this, the tunnels were no longer used.

In 1963, the tunnels were discovered again when a local resident found a hidden room behind a wall in his home during renovations. More digging revealed the tunnel system.

In 1969, the site was opened to visitors. As of 2016, about half of the underground city was accessible to the public.