The underground cities of Cappadocia are settlements cut into the soft volcanic rock of Nevşehir, made to be lived in for long periods and closed against attack. Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are the main two here, and Özkonak, Mazı and Tatlarin each add something the others lack. They share the same basic kit: narrow tunnels, ventilation shafts, wells, food stores, wine presses, churches, and huge rolling stones that could seal a passage in moments.
Why they were cut
Their dates are uncertain. For Derinkuyu the sources list use in the Hittite, Roman and Byzantine periods, with a marble eagle pointing to the Roman period and the church and missionary school to the Byzantine. The account given there is that the first Christians, fleeing persecution in the second century, came to Cappadocia through Antioch and Kayseri. At Kaymaklı the story is of people who had been attacked repeatedly and dug shelters against emergencies, and Phrygian and Assyrian traces have been found there. The tunnels were cut further in the Roman and Byzantine periods.
Derinkuyu: the deep one
Derinkuyu lies in the district of the same name, thirty kilometres from Nevşehir along the road to Niğde. Eight levels have been cleared and opened. The depth currently stands at fifty metres, and if every level were cleared it is expected to reach as much as eighty-five, with some twelve or thirteen levels in all. The narrow tunnels between levels and the stone wheels along them were what kept it secure.
Kaymaklı: a plan built around air
Kaymaklı is in the town of that name in the central district of Nevşehir, cut into tuff over eight levels. Four are cleared and lit, and they were opened to visitors in 1964. Its plan is a maze, but it has a logic: the shafts for ventilation and for passing word were treated as the centre, and rooms were arranged around them. The wells had no link with the surface, which protected the water against poisoning.
Stables are on the first of the open levels, since animals would have been hard to bring further down. The number of food stores suggests a large population. Ottoman sources knew the place by Greek names, Anaku or Enegüp, and locally it was Eneği.
Özkonak: holes for messages
Özkonak is 14 kilometres from Avanos, dug into thick tuff on the north side of Idis Dağı. It has the familiar shafts, well, winery and rolling doors, but its own feature is a set of very narrow holes, about five centimetres across, running between floors. They carried messages from level to level, and they let air in once the room entrances had been shut.
Mazı: stables and a carved church
The village of Mazı, ancient Mataza, is eighteen kilometres south of Ürgüp and ten east of Kaymaklı. Four separate entrances have been found. The main one passes through a corridor of irregular stones, with a large rolling door and a small room cut so that the stone could move. Wide stables lead by a short corridor to a church, which also had a rolling stone at its entrance and has an apse carved into a corner with reliefs on its face. Four levels are thought to have existed, of which two can be seen. It was shut in 2003 after collapses and reopened in 2015.
Tatlarin: frescoes and lavatories
Tatlarin lies ten kilometres from Acıgöl, cut into a hill known locally as the Kale. It was recorded in 1975 and opened in 1991, and most of a far bigger complex remains uncleared, with two levels walkable. The size of its rooms and its many stores and churches made researchers wonder whether it was a garrison or a monastery and not an ordinary refuge.
A curving corridor of fifteen metres leads to a wide hall guarded by a rolling door of stone, a metre and a half wide. Off it are a pantry, a kitchen and a lavatory, which is a rare thing in an underground city. The pantry niches match those in nearby Roman rock tombs, suggesting that the space began as a cemetery. The underground church has two naves and two apses, and its frescoes, with scenes framed by painted bands, are unusually well preserved.
What sets them apart
Kaymaklı, among the largest in Cappadocia, suits anyone interested in how the ventilation and water were planned, and Derinkuyu shows how far down such a city could go. Özkonak has its message holes, Tatlarin has its frescoes and rare lavatories, and Mazı has its church and its stone door.
