MASSIVE UNDERGROUND CITY FOUND IN TURKEY
G'day folks,
In 1963,
a man in the Nevsehir Province of Turkey was doing a little home remodeling and
decided to knock down a wall of his home for an expansion. He discovered a
hidden room behind the wall with a slender hallway carved out of the stone
below his home.
The hallway lead to a cave-like room which lead to more
hallways and cave-like rooms. Before he knew it, he had stumbled onto an entire
underground city that was attached to his home. The city was empty and abandoned,
but it had every amenity you would need to sustain a society. What he had
stumbled on by accident was Derinkuyu and the underground city of Cappadocia.
These tunnels are
believed to be hand dug around the 12th and 15th century BCE. They sheltered
the people, and their food, from the extreme climates above. They also served
as protection from an enemy attack.
The ground is primarily made of ash and volcanic material making it easy to excavate, while still being very durable. No one is sure who first occupied the underground city, however it is certain that many groups have occupied it over the centuries.
With up to 11 floors at
points accessible to the public, the city reaches depths of over 280 feet below
the surface. There have been 11 floors that were excavated and deemed safe for
tourism, however it is speculated that there are over 18 floors below that have
yet to be discovered.
The miles upon miles of tunnels are blackened from centuries of torches traveling through them. The city connects to other cities in the area, spanning miles which would be able to sustain tens of thousands of people at one time.
The underground tunnels
lead to giant rooms that housed schools, wine cellars, oil press rooms,
churches, gathering halls, shops, tombs, arsenals, livestock corrals, escape
routes, and water wells separated from the surface water.
There are over 100 entrances to the underground cities, but each and every one of them are hidden behind bushes or walls. Even courtyards had entrances that were hidden but big enough to move livestock in and out of.
Clancy's comment: Extraordinary, and I guess we'll continue to find more things like this.
I'm ...
