Stretching 280 feet below the Earth’s surface in Turkey’s Cappadocia region is a web of tunnels and cave-like dwellings that once housed 20,000 people.
The underground city of Derinkuyu in Turkey. Natalia Moroz/Getty Images
The ancient city, Derinkuyu, lay abandoned for decades until, in the 1960s, a local man noticed his chickens were disappearing through a gap in his basement that had opened up during renovations, the BBC reported. After knocking down a wall, he found a tunnel — and accidentally rediscovered the sprawling, subterranean city.
Now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, Derinkuyu is open to visitors, though they can explore only eight of its 18 levels. Here’s a closer look at the remarkable city and its history.
Derinkuyu is an 18-level underground city in Cappadocia. At its deepest point, it reaches 280 feet below the Earth’s surface.
Source: BBC
Cappadocia is particularly suited to underground dwellings — its landscape is made of a volcanic-ash rock called tuff, which is pliable and dry, making it easy to carve with simple tools.
After he pulled back a wall, he found a tunnel that led to Derinkuyu.
More than 600 entrances to the ancient city have since been found within people’s homes, the BBC reported.
According to Turkey’s Department of Culture, it was built by the Phrygians in the eighth to seventh centuries BC. It was first referenced in a written text in 370 BC.
Source: Cappadocia Turkey, BBC
It was used for thousands of years — at first for storage and then as a place for people to hide from invasions and conflict.
Derinkuyu. RalucaHotupan/Getty Images
Its dwellers were able to survive underground for months at a time. At its peak, it was home to 20,000 people.
Source: CNN
But in the 1920s it was abandoned by the Cappadocian Greeks when they fled to Greece during the Greco-Turkish War.
After the city was rediscovered in the 1960s, excavators found rooms for many purposes, including food storage, winemaking, oil pressing, and dining.
Source: Cappadocia Turkey
They also unearthed a chapel, pictured, and a religious school.
When the city was inhabited, livestock was kept on floors nearer the surface so their smells and gasses did not affect lower dwellings.
Source: BBC
A well provided clean water, and ventilation shafts allowed fresh air to circulate between the rooms and levels.
Large stone doors on every floor were meant to stop intruders.
Source: Cappadocia Turkey,
A guide told the BBC reporter Geena Truman that life underground “was probably very difficult.” “The residents relieved themselves in sealed clay jars, lived by torchlight, and disposed of dead bodies in [designated] areas,” the guide said.
In 1985, the region was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Source: UNESCO