Derinkuyu Underground City

A multi-level underground city carved deep into Cappadocian tuff, with rolling-stone doors and ventilation shafts.

The name Derinkuyu means "deep well", after the deep shafts that brought water to the city and the town above it. Cappadocia has many underground complexes, but Derinkuyu is the best known.

Who built it and why?

The first tunnels and rooms might have been cut by the Phrygians in the 8th to 7th century BC. Later, Christian communities in the Roman and Byzantine periods expanded the caves into a deep, multi-level city with chapels and a school. It grew a lot during the Arab–Byzantine wars, roughly 780 to 1180, when local Christians used it to hide from raiding armies. People went underground again during later invasions and returned to the surface in peaceful times.

How did it work?

The city was carved mostly from tuff, a rock made from compacted volcanic ash that is easy to cut. Large rolling stone doors could close the passages from the inside, and each floor could be sealed off on its own. Ventilation shafts were designed to move fresh air through the levels. A tunnel of about 8 to 9 kilometers is said to have linked it with another underground city, Kaymakli.

On the globe

The model shows the underground city cut into the rock, with stone doors and air shafts.