The Underground City Of Derinkuyu.

Photo by Nevit Dilmen, distributed under a CC license.

In the Nevşehir Province (Turkey) lies an underground complex known as the Derinkuyu underground city. The city extends to a depth of 60m and could possibly accommodate up to 20,000 people along side with their livestock and food.

This underground complex was large enough to allow the facilities like wine and oil presses,stables,cellars,storage rooms and chapels.

As impressive Derinkuyu is, it is not the only one in existence. Derinkuyu happens to be connected via tunnel with another underground city known as Kaymaklı. There are several other underground complexes however both Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are probably the best examples of such structures.

One question that remains is why would any group of people decide to go through all this trouble in order to live underground? Experts seem to agree that most probably they were primarily intended as a hiding place during raid times.