Posted on 09/27/2014 2:17:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A home owner living in the Melikgazi district of Kayseri province in Anatolia made a surprising discovery while clearing out an area under his house a subterranean city, of which 4,000 square metres have been excavated so far, according to a report in Hurriyet Daily News. The region of Anatolia in Turkey is famous for its underground cities, particularly in the region of Cappadocia where more than 40 complete underground cities and 200 underground villages and tunnel towns complete with hidden passages, secret rooms, and ancient temples have been found. Mustafa Bozdemir, 50, was bequeathed a house in Melikgazi five years ago and decided to carry out restoration work. He explained that what he thought was a single-storey house, turned out to have multiple levels of ancient rooms beneath it. We also found some remains during the cleaning works such as human bones. They were examined by a team from Erciyes University, said Bozdemir.
(Excerpt) Read more at ancient-origins.net ...
Cool! A built-in wine cellar/fallout shelter.
Marc Forestiere was in elementary school with me and his Mom was the den mother in Cub Scouts and she took us all there on a tour showing everything around 1970. Neat place.
As I said earlier on this thread, we used to sneak out there at night and explore as 16 year olds. I’m sure we had no business being there, but we did no harm, either. This was in the mid 50s and it appeared abandoned at the time.
If you are talking about Anatolia, I don't know. If you are talking about the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, CA, there is not much to worry about. Fresno receives less than 10 inches of rain per year. Mr. Forestiere designed his excavations so that the watter drained down to the lowest level -- 3 levels down. From their web page: "Forestiere built three underground levels; the first level is about 10 feet deep, the second is about 22 feet deep, and the third is around 23 feet deep. The lower levels also act as the main drainage point for most of the underground rooms and passageways." Apparently, he had no formal training in architecture and was self taught. He designed his gardens from memory of underground structures that he knew in Italy and learned his engineering from working on subways in Boston.
How did they get fresh air and light?
I think the light sources of that time would ruin the air quality, which would be bad anyway.
Did you see that pile of 4 cent copper coins this bloke found. It was in the Daily Mail?
Mmmmmaybe... how long ago?
Thanks VR!
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/hakhamaneshian/xenophon/anabasis/xeno_anbs_book_4.htm
:’) If there’s enough wine, the nuclear war might not seem so bad.
I’ve had dreams about this.
Olive oil lamps burn pretty clean. Also, some of these sites were carved into the cliff faces, so there are windows showing like skyscrapers. The main problem was water in time of war, but contrary to what some think, it was a larger problem for above ground cities and towns under siege.
:’)
Rainwater was often the primary water source for ancient societies, particularly in desert areas and islands, where wells were scarce or brackish. The Nabatean city of Petra in modern Jordan captured square miles of runoff (with no vegetation, the rain flash-flooded, just as it does in many places in the western US), storing it in cool, underground cisterns dug out of the bedrock, and controlled a lot of trade that way.
They didn’t have TV to distract them.
Carving an underground city might make a premise for a reality [sic] show.
Hey, maybe they were just ugly and the low lighting was beneficial. ;’)
...said Indiana Jones on his wedding night.
Cool in the summer, not cold in the winter.
Lots of reasons to go underground.
If I found that under my house I would not tell anyone! It would be my own secret playground!
It would make being a survivalist a lot easier and more fun. ;’)
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