The underground cities
Several levels below ground, with ventilation shafts, stables, and stone doors that only open from the inside.
- Builtcut from the first millennium BC onwards
- DistrictNevşehir
Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are not caves; they are planned cities. There are air shafts dropping tens of metres, water channels, wine presses, animal pens and chapels. They could hold thousands of people for weeks.
The doors are stone wheels that roll across a passage and move only from the inside. All of it was built to disappear, not to impress.
Some stretches of corridor are low and narrow. Anyone claustrophobic should know that before going down rather than halfway.
What to look for
- The stone doors: round millstones that roll across a corridor and move only from the inside.
- The ventilation shafts, dropping tens of metres and still working — the air down there is cool rather than stale.
- The barrel-vaulted room on the deepest level, which was probably a school.
- The wine presses and animal pens on the upper levels: this was not a hiding place, it was a city.
Before you go
- Some stretches are low and narrow enough to walk bent over. Anyone claustrophobic should know that before going down rather than halfway.
- It is cool down there all year — take an extra layer even in August.
- Kaymaklı is wider and less tight; Derinkuyu is deeper. If there is only time for one, choose on the first sentence.
- An hour, including waiting at the narrow crossings.
