Posted on 01/28/2018 1:23:11 PM PST by aMorePerfectUnion
In 1963, a Turkish man accidentally uncovered an underground city while making renovations to his home. In the region of Cappadocia, the man was knocking down a wall in his basement when he unintentionally came across a secret room, which led to an underground tunnel, which opened up to a ancient hidden city: Derinkuyu.
This ancient city was lying 18 stories beneath the Earth's surface. With about 600 entrances, it could house over 20,000 people and the preservation from the photos show the possibility of livestock, food supplies, churches, tombs, communal rooms, schools and stables all hidden in the underground city (Chapel featured in image above).
The subterranean tunnels stretch for miles and even connect Derinkuyu with other underground ancient cities nearby.
Believed to be created during the Byzantine era in 780-1180 AD, the city's elaborate architecture was most likely used to protect its creators from war and natural disasters. The massive stone doors could close Derinkuyu from intruders on the outside, and each story was able to be cut off separately. 
Astonishing enough, Derinkuyu is not the only city of its kind, though it is up there for one of the largest underground cities. Now, about only half of the city is accessible, becoming a popular tourist destination, along with the natural geological makeup of the region, including rock formations and spires known as "fairy chimneys."
That was the old byzantine cistern. It was the water supply for the old city. Pretty cool architecture. One of the places we went for our field history of Istanbul class when I was stationed at Cakmakli in the 1980’s.
Very cool story. Every day I learn something on F/R.
I wonder how many other forgotten cities remain buried under the Earth. Hail, Atlantis!
Bkmrk.
Derinkuyu: where dying farts have lingered for decades.
Thanks mairdie!
You’re welcome heterosupremacist!
lol
I hate when that happens. I know the feeling. I was demo’ing a house we bought and the idiots had installed a ceiling right over the old one.
"Believed to be created during the Byzantine era in 780-1180 AD, the city's elaborate architecture was most likely used to protect its creators from war and natural disasters."
Initially, I suspected Islam/Arab influences but that wasn't the main threat until the late 10th and early 11th centuries.
One of the most significant influences of Leo III was his involvement with the Iconoclastic movement in about 726. This controversy, the removal and destruction of religious icons in favour of simple crosses, and the persecution of icon worshippers was to have a profound effect on the empire, its religion and culture over most of the next century before being finally laid to rest in 842.
Seems from the history, the issue was iconography.
What amazes me is that so many people knew about this underground city at one time, but everyone had forgotten until this man was working on his basement.
The last guy that left turned out the lights?
To protect from the mussie hoards
Bmk
They took refuge underground in complexes that were already ancient when Alexander the Great marched through the area.
People continued to expand them over the millenia.
Genetic analysis shows that descendants of the ancient population continue to live in the area.
All my kids could sleep in there.
BeauBo wrote:
**The locals in Cappadocia were carving underground complexes out of the soft local rock long before islam, or Christianity.
They took refuge underground in complexes that were already ancient when Alexander the Great marched through the area.
People continued to expand them over the millenia.**
A testimony to the human need for shelter... Awesome photos!
I forgot to add: human ingenuity...
Fascinating, inhabited until 1100 AD, I’m surprised it took so long to uncover. It’s not like it was ancient 3,000 year old lore.
Cappadocia today holds more than a thousand churches, dating from the earliest days of Christianity to the thirteenth century. For many centuries the religious authority of the capital of Cappadocia, Caesarea (present-day Kayseri), extended over the whole of southeast Anatolia, and it was where Gregory the Illuminator, the evangelizer of Armenia, was raised.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/fairy-chimneys-turkey-180956654/
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