Derinkuyu: Turkey’s Underground City

https://www.historicmysteries.com/derinkuyu-underground-city-cappadocia/

by flannery • 9 years ago

111 34 9 years ago

dbmikus• 9 years ago

I wonder what system they had to keep things lit up. I imagine if you were somewhere down there without lights you'd have a bad time.

bklaasen• 9 years ago

I've been in that situation, close to closing time. I was alone, many stories down in the depths of the complex, when without warning the lights went out. I've never experienced such utter, black-out darkness. I was instantly paralysed with fear. The lights came on again after too many seconds of blackness, and I dashed out into daylight as fast as I could. I had to pause several times on the way out while the attendant switched off the lights a few more times.

If you ever get a chance to visit, do so - there are several underground cities in the region, all slightly different. They're fascinating.

didsomeonesay• 9 years ago

That sounds utterly terrifying. I'm surprised you still recommend the visit!

vesinisa• 9 years ago

They probably used oil lamps. This technology was already well-known when these tunnels were dug, and they certainly had access to olive oil.

serguzest3• 9 years ago

The guide told us they were using castor oil lamps.

justincormack3• 9 years ago

I have been there years ago. There is another theory that these are Victorian fakes. They show little sign of habitation, eg remains of stuff or lost things. Which is also why dating them is hard.

24gttghh• 9 years ago

They show little signs now, or they also used to show little sign? The pictures in the article are from what I am assuming are the open-to-the-public section, which is likely swept often.

justincormack3• 9 years ago

No, down the wells and things, in the cracks, where you expect to find things, not just lying around.

fabrika• 9 years ago

Why would they dig a fake 18-level underground city?

justincormack3• 9 years ago

tourism seems the obvious answer.

aaron6952• 9 years ago

People love to make things underground. There's the famous dude in England who did it during a depression hiring people just cause.

Of course perhaps 2000 years ago people were bored and did it for fun too, it could still be historic.

aaron6952• 9 years ago

It did never make sense to me.

8 kilometer long tunnel, how the heck did you accurately connect it. They told the story but there was not much accuracy of where it was.

Baddies come, you hide in the ground, they light fires on top and kill you all or bury you etc. Being in a constrictive space with the enemy outside seemed a bad idea.

It's not like bunkers which are used against aerial bombings. Or escape tunnels to go from A to B.

m3kw9• 9 years ago

How does sewage work in there?

saalweachter• 9 years ago

Pots, probably. You do your business in a chamber pot, and there was probably someone whose job it was to collect it all. The solid wastes get composted, the liquid gets processed for its ammonia, used in cleaning.

Boothroid4• 9 years ago

Cappadocia is definitely worth a visit. I've seen these and they are awesome. There is a vertical shaft that they think was for ventilation and emergencies - a straight drop with holds cut into the rock - would have needed a good head for heights!

I don't think Cappadocia is that risky to visit atm, but personally I wouldn't want to visit while Erdogan is still in power. We shouldn't be rewarding dictators.

mtmail• 9 years ago

I agree. I happened to have visitedCappadocia and Derinkuyu during the week of the (orchestrated?) coup last summer. It was safe. The tourism companies already took a huge hit, for example at one point we were the only guests in our hotel.

afterburner• 9 years ago

Cappadocia is indeed beautiful, in a unique way. The underground "cities" (villages, really) weren't even my favourite part.

Zaheer• 9 years ago

I have friends that were in Turkey recently and they also mentioned its not as risky as it seems. Alternate-point: Decline in tourism hurts average people the most. Many people's live in regions especially like Cappadocia depend on the tourism industry. Enabling the people to enable their own prosperity may be another way to see it.

afsina• 9 years ago

Wow. How is your visit is rewarding a political figure? I am sure local people will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Boothroid4• 9 years ago

The majority of the population appear to support Erdogan. I'm not giving Turkey a penny until they return to proper democracy.

serguzest3• 9 years ago

I advise you to not to visit any of those asian or latin countries with corrupt, undemocratic administrations. Actually I should advise you to leave US immediately, your presence is rewarding Trump and GOP.

Turkey is a lot more than Erdoğan or his party.

It seems like CNN's opinions/propaganda is shaping your travel activism.

Boothroid4• 9 years ago

I don't live in the US and consider CNN perhaps the worst of the MSM, so you have me wrong. I've seen a lot of Turkey so probably have more experience than you think - the majority of the population seem to be behind Erdogan so there's no way I'm visiting Turkey until things change.

zapfranklin• 9 years ago

Finally signed up for a yc account for this. As an American who has lived in Turkey for over half a decade, I offer you an opinion that a) it isn't currently particularly unsafe compared to any European cultural capitol (a credit, in part, to their recently depleted security and intelligence communities), b) Turkey has a multitude of viewpoints with the clearest divide (about 50/50) between conservatives and liberals (sound familiar?), c) visiting Turkey in spite of recent CNN-amplified drama, mostly rewards the people in the tourism industry who have been hurt most by the massive drop in revenue from both terrorism and political instability. Travel and form your own opinions.

latchkey• 9 years ago

I've been. It is a truly impressive feat of human engineering and very fun to explore. It is sad that politics prevent people from visiting it now.

INTPenis• 9 years ago

Lights, sewage are pretty easily answered but what about ventilation?

Apparently they had a large well that acted also as ventilation shaft.

delidumrul2• 9 years ago

It's pathetic that the author has written Turks slaughtered Greeks in 1900s and forced them to leave. An absolute ignorance of history. If Turks has slaughtered any Christian population in their country, how had these people been able to live for above 400 years under their ruling? Oh of course, by hiding in underground cities in Cappadocia.

y4mi• 9 years ago

At least the wikipedia articles seems to agree with the author.

  These cities continued to be used by the Christian natives 
  as protection from the Mongolian incursions of Timur in 
  the 14th century.[7][8]

  After the region fell to the Ottomans, the cities were used 
  as refuges (Cappadocian Greek: καταφύγια) from the Turkish
  Muslim rulers.[9] As late as the 20th century the locals, 
  called Cappadocian Greeks, were still using the underground
  cities to escape periodic waves of Ottoman persecution.[9]
  R. M. Dawkins, a Cambridge linguist who conducted research
  on the Cappodocian Greek natives in the area from 1909-1911, 
  recorded that in 1909, "when the news came of the recent 
  massacres at Adana, a great part of the population at Axo took
  refuge in these underground chambers, and for some nights did 
  not venture to sleep above ground."

delidumrul2• 9 years ago

Many books are written to shape the history in the benefits of some countries. Linking them with other topics will attract more attention and will help to exaggerate effects of their claims. The passage above from wikipedia is a nice example of this propaganda technique. Underground cities are associated with totally another political issue. The blog post, the situation is just inflated and dramatized more: domino effect. It would be too long and unnecessary to answer all accusations, though. Here is not a place for historical or political discussions. Therefore, to sum up, as a local of Cappadocia, I can say that these places are not really unknown places. In this area, there are many underground cities inside the villages (since at least 1900s), not in isolated places. People used these places as warehouses. If a crime existed, then people could have been found there at most as hardly as in a normal village. Hiding on mountains would be a more plausible option. In the early centuries, against invasions, it may be safer than a regular village, because they are generally inside valleys and not in a place where a popular road passes. So, it can't be discovered from far points by eyes.

There are many churches in caves or as buildings. The ones as buildings are from 1800s. Ones in the caves are more older apparently. Also, many historical Greek houses exist. Majority of them contains caves as parts.

Derinkuyu: Turkey’s Underground City

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