Derinkuyu: The Underground City That Held 20,000 People
Quick Facts: Location: Derinkuyu, Nevşehir Province, Cappadocia, Turkey | Date/Year: Rediscovered 1963; origins debated (roughly 8th century BC to 10th century AD) | Status: Ongoing (builders and full extent still unresolved) | Depth: About 60 to 85 meters across 18 levels, with room for an estimated 20,000 people A man in the Cappadocian village of Derinkuyu was renovating his house in 1963 when, as the story goes, he noticed his chickens vanishing behind a wall. He knocked through it and found a narrow passage in the rock, leading down into the dark. It didn't stop for a very long way. The Rock That Wanted to Be a Home To understand Derinkuyu, start with the ground it sits in. Millions of years ago, eruptions from volcanoes like Mount Erciyes and Hasan Dağı blanketed central Anatolia in ash. That ash compressed into tuff, a rock soft enough to carve with iron tools and one that hardens once exposed to air. The people of Cappadocia figured this out early. They dug cellars, ...