Derinkuyu, Cappadocia by aangus
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Description
The air shaft of the underground city of Derenkuyu drops about 85m into the earth. This was the starting point from which they built these incredible ancient structures.
We passed down eight stories to see churches, stables, huge storerooms, an asylum, households, secret passages, circular stone doors (unopenable from above).
A large percentage of the population of these cities went mad, thus the asylum. An average of 10,000 people would live down here at a time, protected from murderous madness on the surface.
Possibly the most surprising thing, I thought, was the fact that there are around 36 other such cities been found in the area, some connected by tunnels tens of Kilometers long. How bad must it have been on the surface to go to this extent?
Comments (19)
creanum
Very good impression in this picture.....
flashone
Fascinating photo. Really like the detail. Even more intrigued by the whole underground city thing. Very intriguing indeed.
drsofaking
Great image... I thought it was a belly-button...
chrisuribe
Please excose my ignorance but where is that at? awesome picture, interesting history. :) provably back then someone was already making nuclear threats. I would go crazy too, down there with 10,00 more people (can you imagine the smell?)
Kropot
Wow, what a story, proof that the madness of today is the seem as yesterday. We better stick those battling people undergroudn and we above :) Excellent combo.
davidm
Wow! Fascinating image! :-)
Blacklilia
Huge a navel... Excellent shot!!!!!!
glix70
Wow!!! So mistery hall!!! Great shot!!! Thanks for the explanation of the story,it's really interresting!!! :)
logiloglu
i agree with the others. excellent shot. !!!!!! :O) !!!!!!!
garnite
Wonderful shot, but your words really fascinate me. Where prezackly is this place, or these places? Cappadocca sounds like a yuppie's coffee drink. Would love to learn more about this whole thing.
dark_storm
Wow! Yeah im agree with the other .. this is a superb shot. Excelent work my friend. !!!!!!:O)!!!!!!
Masema
Wow indeed! Facinating story...makes me want to learn more...I sure hope you have more from here ;-) Excellent shot.
cynlee
very interesting... we'd all luv to hear more! :]
artvan
It's in Turkey. Do a search, there's some really cool info online about the underground cities. It's Derinkuyu & Cappadocia. Thanks for sharing this with us.
SNAKEY
Cool shot and great info on Derinkuyu & Cappadocia, an eye opener, never knew there was a 8 level underground city down below. :O))
mangelf
Excellent shot!
Michelle A.
Amazing! I learn something new everyday here!
jgeorge
What a hole! Interesting the explanation...
aangus
Another thing about these cities was that there were no signs left of their excavations. No piles of debris from their tunneling existed. They must have deposited gradually it in near-by rivers. Everthing was about avoiding detection, there are very few kitchens to be found, there must have been communal cooking areas to reduce the chance of being found out by the smoke. They date back to possibly the Paleolithic age. They were then used by early Christians to spread their religion secretly and carry out their religious obligations. They were later used to shelter from Arab raids starting about the 6th Century. Poisoning of the air vents was a big problem, so ventilation was very important. Some of these cities have toilets that are still usable even today - not bad for Turkey - but when under siege (which could go on for years) they had to use pots and bury them in sand until safe to dump on the outside.