Derinkuyu Underground City

Situated in the Derinkuyu Cappadocia province, this city was built as a defence and hiding site during the period of the spreading of Christianity. It was built by excavating the soft rocks underground, and is estimated to have been built during the 9th-10th centuries. It consists of rooms on either side of narrow passages, ventilation stacks, a chapel and a well.

Derinkuyu is the deepest excavated underground city in Cappadocia. A beautiful natural wonder with impressive fairy chimneys and eroded caverns, Cappadocia is an amazing geological spectacle. It is also riddled with extensive subterranean dwellings and secret tunnel passages that various people utilized for shelter across the centuries. There are hundreds of these homes in the region, and Derinkuyu is the most famous. At a depth of more than 250 feet with a capacity of up to 20,000 people, this multi-leveled city contained everything an entire population would need to survive a history riddled with invasions.

Derinkuyu Underground City Map