Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Derinkuyu, the mysterious underground city of Turkey


In 1963, an inhabitant of Derinkuyu (in the region of Capadocia, central Anatolia, Turkey), demolishing a wall of his house-cave, discovered astonished that behind the same was a mysterious room that never had seen; this room took to another one, and this one to another one and another one… By chance the underground city of Derinkuyu was shortage, whose first level could be excavated by hititas around year 1400 a.C.
The archaeologists began to study this fascinating left underground city. They were able to arrive at the forty meters of depth, although one thinks that he has a bottom of up to 85 meters.
At present 20 underground levels are shortage. The eight levels only can be visited superiors; the others partially are obstructed or reserved to the archaeologists and anthropologists who study Derinkuyu.








The city was used like refuge by thousands of people who lived in the subsoil to protect themselves of the frequent invasions that Capadocia underwent, at the diverse times of their occupation, and also by the first Christians.
The enemies, conscious of the danger that locked up to introduce itself inside the city, generally tried that the population left to the surface poisoning wells.





The interior is amazing: the underground galleries of Derinkuyu (in which there is space for, at least, 10,000 people) could be blocked in three strategically important points moving circular stone doors. These heavy rocks that closed the corridor prevented the entrance of the enemies. They had of 1 to 1.5 meters of height, about 50 centimeters in width and a weight of up to 500 Kilos.






In the image superior it is appraised how the circular stone door closed the corridor, having isolated the inhabitants of the subsoil
In addition, Derinkuyu has a tunnel of almost 8 kilometers in length that leads to another underground city of Capadocia, Kaymakli.







Of the underground cities of this zone the Greek historian Jenofonte spoke. In his work Anabasis he explained that the people who lived in Anatolia had excavated their houses under earth and lived sufficiently in great lodgings like for a family, his domestic animal and the food provisions that stored.




In the reclaimed levels stables have been located, dining rooms, a church (of cruciform plant of 20 by 9 meters, with a ceiling of more than three meters of height), kitchens (still blackened by the soot of bonfires that ignited to cook), presses for the wine and the oil, warehouses, stores of feeding, a school, numerous rooms and, even, a bar.

The city benefitted from the existence of an underground river; it had water wells and a magnificent exhaust fan (52 wells of ventilation are shortage) that astonishes to the engineers of the present time.