Machu Picchu is stunning because of the Mt. Huayna looming over it and Angkor is gorgeous because of the thousands of temples that dot its landscape but Derinkuyu is simply mind blowing because of the amount of effort put in construction of its vast underground chambers and that too at least 2500 years ago. The world and even the Turks of Cappadocia region where the city is located didn’t know of the place until 1963 when the city was accidently discovered by a resident of the area who was trying to dig for a well in the region.
The city is huge, till now 12 floors of this colossal feat of construction has been unearthed and it is believed that there are many more hidden under them. You will be stunned to see that how well planned the city is with proper ventilation and separate chambers constructed for humans and livestock. Archeologist believe that it was constructed somewhere around 1400 BC by the original inhabitants of the Cappadocia for their protection against the invading armies of their barbaric neighbors. It is also believed that the city was used by the early Christians to protect them from the persecution by the hand of the Roman government of the time.
Cappadocia has an airport but no international airlines fly direct flights there, instead you have to take a direct flight to Istanbul or Ankara and then you can fly a domestic flight to the region with Turkish Airways. British Airways, KLM, Air France and Lufthansa offer direct flights to Ankara. The Turkish Airways is also a good option for travelling as it offers cheap flights to Ankara and Istanbul.
Only 8 floors of Derinkuyu are open for the general public as the rest are either not safe for visiting or in use of the archeologists trying to unearth the rest of the city. It is believed that the city could be populated by 50,000 inhabitants along with their livestock at any moment of time. There are 3 main stone doors that control the movement in to the city; each of them is 1 to 1.5 meter in height and 50 centimeters in width. This city was self sufficient in many ways, as it has its own wells and if you couple it with the livestock and amount of storage capacity it has, it could have easily out last its besiegers.
Derinkuyu is the largest of the underground cities that have been unearthed yet but it is by no means the only one in the region. In fact it is connected to 40 cities and other underground settlements through long tunnels but only a few of them are open to public as work in still undergoing to properly discover these cities.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.