Derinkuyu, also known as Malakopē in Cappadocian Greek and Malacopia in Latin, is a town located in Nevşehir Province within the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It serves as the main town of Derinkuyu District. According to the 2022 data, the population of Derinkuyu is 10,912. The town is situated at an elevation of 1,333 meters (4,373 feet).

Geography

Derinkuyu is located in Cappadocia and is famous for its large underground city with many levels. This underground city is a popular place for visitors to see. The area of Cappadocia, where Derinkuyu is found, has several other underground cities. These cities were carved into a special type of rock. Most of them are not used today. More than 200 underground cities, each at least two levels deep, have been found between Kayseri and Nevşehir. About 40 of these cities have at least three levels. The underground cities at Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are two of the best examples of this kind of underground living.

The landform of the area makes it easier to build underground. The soil is usually dry, and the tuff rock common in the area is simple to shape.

Inside the city, there were storage areas for food, kitchens, stalls, churches, presses for making wine and oil, air shafts, wells, and a school for religious learning. The Derinkuyu underground city has at least eight levels and reaches a depth of 85 meters (279 feet). It could have provided shelter for thousands of people.

History

The oldest written record about underground buildings comes from Xenophon. In his book Anabasis (around 370 BCE), he described how people in Anatolia had dug out homes underground. These homes were large enough to house families, their animals, and stored food. The first two levels of Derinkuyu Underground City are believed to date back to this time.

From the 4th century CE until 1923, the underground city was called Malakopea by its Cappadocian Greek residents. During the middle Byzantine period, the city was greatly expanded to protect people from attacks by Umayyad and Abbasid Arab armies during the Arab–Byzantine wars (780–1180). It was also used as a shelter during the 14th-century attacks by Mongolian forces led by Timur. After the region was controlled by the Ottomans, the underground city served as a refuge for people fleeing Ottoman rule. Even in the 20th century, Cappadocian Greeks used the underground chambers to escape persecution by the Ottomans.

Richard MacGillivray Dawkins, a Cambridge linguist who visited the area in 1910–1911, wrote about the underground city:

"The name katafýgia (refuge) shows these places were used for safety during dangerous times. When news of the 1909 Adana massacres reached Axo, many people took shelter in the underground chambers and stayed there for several nights without sleeping above ground."

In 1923, the Cappadocian Greeks were forced to leave the region as part of a population exchange between Greece and Turkey. After this, the tunnels were no longer used.