Mysterious and enchanting, this underground city is a motif that is often used within science fiction. But there are two ancient Turkish city that represents one of the many places that were in fact more powerful than fantasy.
* The rooms and the maze of alleyways that are dispersed which had become home to thousands of people can be found thousands of feet below the Turkish city of Capadocia. (Haluk Ozozlu)
Like a sea dwellers actual base, the population of the Central Anatolia brought the concept to the extreme underground life.
Discovered more than 100 feet below the surface, the ancient city Derinkuyu is probably the most impressive underground city is located in this region. The archaeologists determined that the tunnel and the basement complex maze that his position was once used as a safe haven for an estimated 100,000 people.
Derinkuyu was accidentally discovered in 1963 when a resident Capadocia currently working on the expansion of the cave where he lives, breaking through a wall to find a mysterious room that was carved in stone beside the residence.
Inspired by these findings, the owner of the cave continued to dig, find a room previously sculpted one by one. This finding opens one of the more interesting archaeological adventure in the last century.
Archaeologists have investigated along 130 feet beneath the surface, found an impressive occupancy decorated with stone carvings. But some archaeologists estimate that there are still many more investigations because of the depth of the city is estimated to reach at least 78 meters in the ground.
Although the famous tourist attraction offers eight levels of underground adventure for those who want to investigate Derinkuyu, but there is still another 10 or 12 level again which is now only archaeologists are allowed to investigate. The total number of levels of the city is still unknown.
Safe Shelter
Not used as a permanent residence, on the contrary, this underground shelter serves as a temporary hiding place for the city which is on the surface is attacked. Designed so that tens of thousands of people to live underground, safe from the advancing army for months at a time.
To be responsible for so many people who lived underground for a long time, city planners incorporate 50 more Derinkuyu ventilation tube into the design. Apart from many wells, the city also has a natural underground river to help meet the water needs of residents.
This underground rock sculpturing with primitive equipment in one room alone there may be a difficult task and requires a lot of energy, but scattered city has gangs maze of connecting rooms, urban areas and different levels -level. There's even an aisle 8 miles in length, connecting Derinkuyu with many other ancient underground city-Kaymakh.
Derinkuyu have rooms for all daily activities the same as that enjoyed by the people of this ancient city when they are surface dwellers. There is a desk, kitchen, dining room, tavern, like water tanks, shop, wine cellar and underground oil storage and a school. There are even places of worship, including a chapel with 19.5 x 9 meters wide with a ceiling height of almost 3 meters.
There is accommodation for many families and also room for pets, gardens, and enough food for about half a year. Kitchen stove is a trait that exist in both cities and in several places in Kaymakh, some alley decorated with Byzantine paintings.
Security Systems
Because of the underground city was used as a refuge for a few months of invaders who came from outside, holding the smugglers in order not to outside is a priority.
Derinkuyu equipped with a very large door moveable plate in the form of a very heavy rock, almost 60 cm thick and 1.8 meters in diameter more. These doors can digelinding open to let people enter and digelinding close to detain enemy out.
Because they are carved over the centuries, an amazing underground city is actually the product of several cultures.
For example Kaymakh, built between the 5th century and the 10th. Although the complete structure Kaymakh older than Derinkuyu initial construction-in which shows the 7th century, made by the Phrygians (population Phrygia, an ancient region in central western Asia Minor)-many archaeologists think that the first level of Kaymakh may have been built by Hittites (member of an ancient society that founded the empire in Asia Minor and Syria), about 1,400 BC.
Facts obtained on where it stated that these first inhabitants might never serve the rest of the population Hittites when their empire was destroyed by invaders from Thrace (population of Thrace, an ancient country located in the western Black Sea and the northern Aegean).
