Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı Guide

The underground cities of Cappadocia have inspired the visions of travelers since the selfish Greek leader wrote about them in the 5th century BC. Hittite artifacts found in some suggest they may have been initially constructed a millennium before, but no one knows for sure who dug the cities, or when, or why. The underground networks were indeed modified and probably also significantly increased later by the early Christians who owned them. Some of these complexes are only passages between different belowground dwellings. Others deserve the title of "city": The largest, covering Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu, have multiple levels and were provided to house thousands of people for months at a time. The impermeable tufa, or porous rock, kept the insides of the cities dry while ventilation shafts supplied air and interior wells provided water. Ground-level entrances were intelligently disguised, and if invaders did make their walk-in, huge, round stones following millstones were used to block off different ways and secure the city.