Derinkuyu is an underground hive village in the Derinkuyu region of Turkey, one of 36 proposed underground urban complexes for the entire Cappadocia region. According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture, the soft volcanic rock was first excavated by Prigian (Indo-European culture 8-7 centuries BC), who built primitive houses, while other sources believe the early construction was Persian or Hitties
This structure was later painted by Xenophon of Athens, who wrote in Anabasis (c. 370 BC) that people living in Anatolia dug their homes underground and lived in rooms large enough to accommodate families, pets, and grocery stores. During the Byzantine period, Derinkuyu developed into an important 18-storey complex on several levels (reported in WMCAUS 2016), reaching a depth of 85 meters. The site has a 445 km2 tunnel and a labyrinth of space and can accommodate 20,000 residents. Like the dark apartments of the time, the living room consisted of a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and often a small shelter. Ancillary facilities for residents included wine and food cellars, churns, water tanks, kiosks, restaurants, chapels and planned schools.
Access is controlled through a boulder door that is carefully balanced like a millstone that can block the complex at various aisles and intersections to block intruders. The air is regulated by ventilation ducts that carry air through the largest self-propelled system, 55 m high. This complex is believed to have expanded significantly in the middle of the Byzantine period to protect against the invasion of Arm Ma and Abbas troops during the Arab-Byzantine War. Derinkuyu continued to be used as a means of protection for Christians who took refuge from Mongol invasions in the 14th century and Greek Cappadocia in the 20th century, until they were forgotten by the deportation of Christians by the Turkish government in 1923 to avoid periodic wars. Derinkuyu was rediscovered. This happened in an accident in 1963 when a local resident renovated a modern house and opened a cave passage to the tunnel system.
Why It Was Built?
When the invaders arrived, Cappadocia knew where to hide. Carved from flexible ash, called tuff, in one of 250 underground shelters underground. The housing project has now found the largest refuge found in Cappadocia, a region in central Turkey famous for its chimney houses, cave churches and underground cities that residents have built for millennia. Found under a Byzantine castle in the provincial capital of Nevsehir, this site dates back to the early Byzantine period.
Throwing Light In Tunnel
In 2013, builders demolishing the low-income palace found an entrance to a network of rooms and tunnels. The city stopped housing construction, gathered archaeologists and geophysicists and began research. A 300-year paper journey between local governments and those of the Ottoman Empire suggests where to start. Hasan Yunver, Mayor of Nevsehir, said: “I have found documents showing that there are almost 30 major waterways in the area.
Through this tunnel in 2014, scientists discovered a multi-level settlement with residential buildings, kitchens, wineries, chapels, staircases and local laundry presses to create kerosene that illuminates the underground city. Artifacts such as whetstones, stone crosses and pottery indicate that the city has been in use since the Byzantine era during the Ottoman conquest. Like Derinkuyu, this place is a large and independent complex of air and waterways. When danger loomed, Cappadocia retreated underground, blocking the entrance tunnels with boulders and covering up with livestock and supplies until the threat disappeared. Early Christian conversion to Cappadocia – The apostle Paul arrived in the 1st century and the bishops were the players of the 4th Christian Byzantine empire in the 4th century. It became a refuge during the centuries of the Anatolian wars. Muslim colonists came here at the end of the 8th century, and the Seljuks centuries later.
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