It was just a regular day for Mustafa Bozdemir in 1963 as he made renovations to his home in Nevşehir Province, Turkey. That is until Mustafa knocked down a wall of his home and behind it, discovered a whole new room. Connected to this room was an entire city built for nearly twenty-thousand people.1 This city is what became know as Derinkuyu, one of the ancient world’s biggest mysterious.
What we know about who built and lived in the city of Derinkuyu still remains unknown. According to one theory, the city’s beginning dates to 800 B.C.E. when Derinkuyu was built and inhabited first by the Hittites from the Old Kingdom period for an estimated short one-hundred years.2 After the fall of the Hittites around 700 BCE, historians have come to the conclusion that the Phrygians inhabited Derinkuyu.3 Derinkuyu was a sanctuary for the people who lived above ground in the Cappadocia region of modern-day Turkey. The entire region of Cappadocia above Derinkuyu was under constant attack. Since they were under constant attack, this inspired another theory that the majority of the twenty-thousand people who lived within Derinkuyu were refugees from the war between the Arab tribes and Byzantine Christians who were at war overhead around 650 BCE.4
Derinkuyu was equipped with amenities, created with technology far beyond their time. Such amenities included housing for livestock, ventilation chimneys, churches, and schools.5 Archaeologists were baffled by the design of Derinkuyu. The engineering used to build Derinkuyu was with a technology that seems to be from a later time. The cities were carved out of volcanic rock found underground. Since protection was their number one priority, multiple mechanizations were put in place in order to ensure their protection.6 Such mechanization included rolling stone doors to close off various tunnels. In the case of an attack, the rolling stone doors would block any entrances to trap intruders within the tunnel. In the roof of the tunnels, what would appear to be ventilation holes, were actually holes to pour oil on any intruders.7
Derinkuyu was a thriving city for an estimated four-hundred years. Another question historians have about Derinkuyu is what happened to its people? Once Derinkuyu was discovered, it did not take researchers long to learn that it was connected to multiple other underground cities in the surrounding area, including Goreme and Kaymakli.8 Historians have come to the conclusion that Derinkuyu must have been under attack, and people fled to one of the surrounding cities; however, it is still uncertain.
The majority of Derinkuyu’s history may never be known; however, this mysterious city is still an important part of ancient Turkey. Derinkuyu has influenced engineers today to consider the possibility of building underground cities as the population and need for living space continues to grow. Today Derinkuyu has become a tourist attraction for people all over the world.9
- Vladimír Nývlta, Josef Musíleka , JiĜí ýejkab , Ondrej Stopkac, “The Study of Derinkuyu Underground City in Cappadocia Located in Pyroclastic Rock Materials,” Procedia Engineering 161 ( 2016 ): 2253. ↵
- Fitzroy Dearborn, The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Warfare (London, UK : Reaktion Books, 2016), 146. ↵
- Benedict Anderson, Buried City, Unearthing Teufelsberg: Berlin and Its Geography of Forgetting ( New York : Routledge, 2017), 13. ↵
- Dig into history, February 2016, s.v. “‘Uncovering’ an underground city,” by Catie Steidl. ↵
- Dobraszczyk, Paul, Galviz, Carlos López, Garrett, Bradley L, Global Undergrounds: Exploring Cities Within (London, UK : Reaktion Books, 2016), 35. ↵
- C. J. Lim, Inhabitable Infrastructures: Science Fiction or Urban Future? (New York, NY: Routledge, 2017), 279. ↵
- Tony Wright, Turn Right at Istanbul: A Walk on the Gallipoli Peninsula (Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2003), 67. ↵
- Henry Herman, Dominance and Aggression in Humans and Other Animals: The Great Game of Life (London, United Kingdom: Academic Press, 2017), 297. ↵
- Lynn Levine, Frommer’s Turkey: From the Blue Mosque to the Blue Lagoon (3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2004), 344. ↵
71 comments
Mario Sosa
I never would have figured that people thousands of years ago would have been able to build underground cities. I am actually surprised that I never heard about this sooner. It is very strange to see Derinkuyu supporting 20,000 people underground, as I imagined this concept only being used in some futuristic post-apocalyptic world. Being discovered during the height of the Cold War, I would have imagined that the people living in the area were more happy to have a place to take shelter in than to have discovered a long lost city. Nice job on the article!
Robert Rees
Prior to reading this article I was aware of the existence of the catacombs beneath Paris, so learning of the existence of underground cities was not surprising to me. What I found interesting about this article was how Derinkuyu was constructed a millennia before the Paris catacombs. I did not expect the people of the ancient world to be capable of contracting such an elaborate subterranean cities. This article was well written, however I felt it could stand to be a tad longer.
Crystalrose Quintero
I thought It was so neat to read about an underground city. More importantly the pictures were really beautiful to see and the map of the layout city was a helpful visual. It was interesting to read that the city was built with advance technology that seemed to be more or less futuristic. The concluding paragraph was written nicely without reiterating what was said but at the same time bringing the information together.
Osman Rodriguez
Very interesting article! I have never heard of this until now. I have heard of underground shelters and dungeons of sorts, but not a whole city! That is crazy. I would definitely love to go visit and its definitely one of the marvels, similar to that of how were the pyramids built. The technology and engineering needed to do something like this does indeed sound like something ahead of their time. It is great to speculate how it is all that was built underground and for what purpose.
Amanda Figueroa
It is always interesting to read about discoveries that were accidental. It’s one of those right place, right time kind of things that are just fascinating. Derinkuyu makes us realize how there are still many things that we don’t know about in history like the technology that they already had. The building infrastructure was very innovative and lasted for a long time. This was a good article to read.
Andrea Chavez
Wow would be the best way to describe my expression after reading this article. I would never had though people in ancient times doing that, that’s more of a recent thing according to me. It was very well planned since it includes traps and multi-tasking holes. There must have been a great story behind all of this. I think a really good fiction story can come out, based on this.
Marco Picardo
I loved the images depicting the underground city. The map and interior images helped illustrate what it would be like living in the city. It is hard to imagine that a city was built underground. One could only imagine the fear the people felt in order to actually go through with building, and living in this underground city. I never knew about such a city exciting. Overall, I loved the article.
Valeria Hernandez
Lauryn Hyde chooses an interesting topic however the article is too superficial and there are not enough details. The introduction captured my attention along with the images. Hyde should have described the fining or exhibition a little more in order to provide the readers with more information regarding this fascinating topic. However, it is always useful to know about archeological discoveries because it refreshes our memory regarding historical events.
Samman Tyata
Wow! I really loved your display picture. Furthermore, You have a well written and well managed article that was really informative; I had never heard about this before. It was really interesting to hear how Mustafa Bozdemir found about the Mysterious Underground City. It was interesting to read that Derinkuyu was equipped with amenities, created with technology far beyond their time. I also loved reading about the mechanism. To sum it up, it was a refreshing and good read.
Oceane Roux
Thank you for this article! I had never heard of this underground city before reading this article, and I find it amazing that people have been able to build such thing! It is funny how Mustafa Bozdemir discovered it as well. The pictures really add something to the article and give us a better view of the city. This article was really interesting, and it shows that we still have so much to discover.