Derinkuyu: The Underground City That Hid 20,000 People For Centuries

The underground tunnels beneath the town of Derinkuyu, Turkey, could hold a stunning number of people, up to 20,000. This vast underground maze of rooms and corridors was basically a whole town and not just a simple family-sized bomb shelter.

Derinkuyu’s depth is also impressive, about 85 meters (or about 280 feet) underground, which is the equivalent of inverting a 25-story skyscraper.

Eighteen. The city is composed of 18 levels, built one above the other and connected by a network of passages. The incredible depth of this city, dug into the solid rock under the earth, is greater than the height above the ground of most modern buildings.

There may be other undiscovered subterranean cities, but at this point Derinkuyu is one of the largest and deepest ever found.

Derinkuyu is one of a whole bunch of subterranean cities in the Nevşehir Province in central Turkey, in the region historically known as Cappadocia, where many more can be found.

The complex is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a designation given to sites of exceptional cultural or historical value.

In 1963, a local man kept losing his chickens. He noticed that they were disappearing through a small opening in a wall during his house renovations. Upon investigating, he discovered a dark passageway leading to a huge underground city complex.

Hundreds of the private houses in the town contain secret passageways, leading straight down to an underground settlement. Generations of residents had no idea they were living on top of entrances that their descendants would one day discover.

Breathing hundreds of feet underground is not easy. Fortunately, the ingenious builders of the underground city of Derinkuyu designed a highly efficient system of air shafts to circulate fresh air throughout the complex.

The presence of the hearth and storage areas indicates that the complex was likely designed to be a viable long-term home for people, not just a bare-bones shelter used to survive.

The stables at Derinkuyu impressed me the most; residents brought their domestic animals underground with them. It’s a practical thought, as animals provided food and milk, and would still be needed once everyone resurfaced. At the same time, though, it is rather bizarre to think of.

What I find fascinating is the communal hall. It wasn’t just about taking refuge in the dark and praying for survival. There is a designated place for the residents to gather and talk, to meet, to be a community, even underground.

No matter where we live, even (especially?) underground, it seems that there are rules, and consequences. The prison was a small cell carved into the rock.

And while Derinkuyu provided all manner of comforts to its folks, it wasn’t used around the clock and it clearly wasn’t a permanent abode. Rather, the underground city served primarily as an escape route in times of war and hardship. Once danger neared, the population fled underground; when it passed, they came back up to the land of the living.

It’s spooky and maze-like and looks incredible. A tad disappointing that it was not the abode of a secret race of “mole people,” but it’s just as interesting as it is: normal people made this to hide, because survival mattered more than comfort. The real truth is enough to take our breath away.

There is a heated debate between researchers about the age of the ancient city. Some believe that the city may have originally been built by the Phrygians up to 2,800 years ago, while others still are not convinced.

One theory suggests that these tunnels were used during the Persian Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, around 550 BCE. This theory rests more on historical accounts than solid archeological evidence, but the tunnels may have served as a refuge for townspeople fleeing the ravages of war.

The clearest indicators of who lived in the complex come in the form of its early Christian inhabitants. These Greek-speaking Christians left behind inscriptions, chapels, and other modifications to the rock-hewn complex, evidence of their presence and worship deep beneath the Earth.

Over the centuries, Derinkuyu has offered shelter to various people. During the Arab-Byzantine Wars, Byzantine Christians took refuge there. It also offered refuge to Christians following the Mongol invasions of the 14th century.