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The Derinkuyu Underground City (Derinkuyu Yeraltı Şehri) is the largest multilevel underground city excavated in Turkey. It’s part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing for Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia.
Visiting
The Derinkuyu Underground City is located in Cappadocia in the town of Derinkuyu. It’s open daily and admission for foreigners is €13 (as of August 2024). There are some tight spaces and low ceilings in some of the tunnels so beware if you’re claustrophobic. The main tunnel to get down to the chambers is one way, so expect some waiting if there are large groups. Also, it can get quite cool underground. You may want to bring a light jacket.
History
The Derinkuyu Underground City may have been formed as far back as the 8th century BC by the Phrygians. It was expanded by Cappadocian Greek Christians sometime during the Byzantine era. Some artifacts found in the city date back to the 5th century.
The city was used for protection during the Arab-Byzantine Wars between the 7th and 11th centuries. It was connected to other underground cities through a series of tunnels. It continued to serve as a shelter for Christian natives well into the early 20th century to escape periodic persecutions by the Ottomans.
When the local Greeks were sent to Greece as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the Derinkuyu Underground City was abandoned. It was rediscovered in 1963 when a resident found a strange room behind a wall while renovating his home. The cave city opened to the public in 1969. About half is accessible, but only 10% is open to visitors.
Features
The Derinkuyu Underground City reaches a depth of about 85 meters (279 feet) and could be closed off from the inside with large stone doors. It was capable of sheltering up to 20,000 people along with livestock and food stores. The temperature was cool and constant no matter the season above ground.
Rooms inside served as churches, stables, cellars, wine and olive oil presses, storage rooms, and refectories. There was a missionary school on the second level.
A 55-meter (180 foot) ventilation shaft also served as a well. It provided water to villagers aboveground in times of peace as well as to those in hiding.
Church of St. Theodore
Near the entrance to the Derinkuyu Underground City is the Church of St. Theodore. It served the local Cappadocian Greek community of Derinkuyu, which was known in Greek as Malakopí (Μαλακοπή). The church was built under the permission of Sultan Abdülmecid I and opened on May 15, 1858. The architect was Kyriakos Papadopoulos. In Turkish, the church is known as the Church of the Grapes (Üzümlü Kilise) for its beautiful engravings of grapes.
