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Derinkuyu is an underground city carved into the soft volcanic rock of Cappadocia, in central Turkey. With stables, kitchens, wells and chapels spread over many levels, it could shelter as many as 20,000 people with their animals and food.

Archaeology (Derinkuyu, Cappadocia)

HistoryScience

The story behind the card

The city goes down about 85 metres. A main air shaft ventilates the levels, and heavy round stone doors, rolled across the passages from inside, could close each level. The first rooms may have been cut by the Phrygians in the 8th or 7th century BCE. The complex was greatly enlarged in the Byzantine period, when local Christians sheltered there from Arab raids between about 780 and 1180, and the region's underground cities served as refuges again in later centuries. After the Christian population was sent to Greece in the 1923 population exchange, the city was forgotten until 1963, when a resident renovating his house broke through a wall into a hidden room. It opened to visitors in 1969.

Türkçe oku
Derinkuyu, Kapadokya'da yumuşak volkanik kayaya oyulmuş bir yeraltı şehridir. Pek çok kata yayılan ahırları, mutfakları, kuyuları ve şapelleriyle 20.000 kadar insanı, hayvanları ve erzakıyla birlikte barındırabiliyordu.

Şehir yaklaşık 85 metre derine iner. Ana hava bacası katları havalandırır; içeriden yuvarlanarak geçitlerin önüne çekilen ağır, yuvarlak taş kapılar her katı kapatabilirdi. İlk odaları MÖ 8. ya da 7. yüzyılda Frigler oymuş olabilir. Şehir en çok Bizans döneminde, yaklaşık 780 ile 1180 arasında yerel Hristiyanların Arap akınlarından korunmak için buraya sığındığı yıllarda genişledi; bölgenin yeraltı şehirleri sonraki yüzyıllarda da sığınak olarak kullanıldı. 1923'teki nüfus mübadelesiyle bölgenin Hristiyan halkı Yunanistan'a gönderilince şehir unutuldu. 1963'te evini onaran bir Derinkuyulu, bir duvarı yıkınca arkasında gizli bir oda buldu. Şehir 1969'da ziyarete açıldı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Derinkuyu underground city
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