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
Joel Gracia
I had heard stories and seen pictures before of these underground cities, but I had no idea that they supported 20,000 people and had their own real city structure. Although it might have been a forced way of life, the fact that these people accomplished these civilizations with primitive technology shows the capabilities of the human race. This was a great article that makes me want to plunge deeper into the topic in the future.
Alexis Renteria
Its amazing how there was a whole underground city built so long ago capable of hiding thousands of people behind a wall. I was surprised with the architecture of the underground city, the ventilation systems, and the traps they had in case there was an attack. Despite this amazing underground city, I find it sad that people had to live underground just to avoid being killed. Overall, this article was very well put together and describes the story of Derinkuyu with great detail.
Thomas Fraire
This article was really interesting. I have never heard of this place or even know about an underground city having been in existence. It’s really cool how these were way more advanced in technology in terms of other civilizations in there time period. This article was really well researched. It’s always weird when entire bodies of civilization vanish though from existence and no one knows why.
Zeresh Haman
This is really interesting, I can’t imagine knocking a wall down and finding a whole city. Its crazy that the city remained hidden for so long. Its so cool to see that they had technology in this city for livestock and schools. I think that this idea is really good for cities that are beginning to become over populated. This was a very interesting and informative article.
Abigale Carney
This was a very interesting article! I have never heard of Derinkuyu before, and I have never heard of underground cities before. The architecture described in the article seems very complex, but also elegant for an underground society. It is so cool that they were almost a hidden city, which makes it strange that the people mysteriously disappeared from their city leaving no one to know why.
Alondra Aviles
It’s absolutely fascinating how an entire society lived underground and coexisted what I would assume as “comfortable”. Although it is sad how this society was basically forced to live underground, their ability to maintain such a structure is really interesting. Not only are the reasons behind the build intriguing but the structure and architect was impressive; a small population surviving in such small “tunnel-like” facilities. The architecture and living conditions are to be admired. The article was very well written providing much insight on this topic all around. It would be very interesting to actually travel and have a sense of how these tunnels worked and just imagine how people lived and coexisted.
Veronica Spryszynski
Interesting topic. If he wouldn’t have decided to renovate his house and have an accidental finding of the city they they would have never found it or have found it later on in the future. I couldn’t image a whole new world behind my wall. Its weird that they didn’t find any bones or tools in the underground city, I think that would’ve helped to determine what kind of people lived there.
Karina Nanez
Incredible that a city like this would have gone undiscovered for so long and with it no history found. I also find it amusing that the way this underground city was discovered was because a Turkish man had decided to renovate his home. But now this article makes me curious as to what life was like in this city. And why did they build it underground?
Edith De Loera
During my time in high school, we had learned about cave-cities but my teacher failed to mention Derinkuyu. I find is so intriguing how far back architecture goes. These people made their cities 4 stories high, including vertical staircases. I would love to some day tour the underground city. It’s unbelievable how thousands of people lived underground in a city that nobody knew existed.
Briana Myers
This is a very interesting topic. It is hard to imagine that such a large city was built underground. They way that it was constructed is very interesting and appears to be done very well. It is very mysterious how researchers are unsure of what could have happened to the people that lived in the city. The theory that they must have been attacked seems plausible as there would be really no other reason for the people to flee their city.