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Underground
cities in Cappadocia,
Turkey? Surely they're joking, I
thought to myself when I first
heard of them.
No
joke!
I
had no idea these subterranean
towns extended seven and eight
levels into the earth, carved
from the soft volcanic stone. When
I finally explored them, I felt as
though I was wandering through a gigantic
sponge.
You
can make a day-trip
excursion from Ürgüp, Göreme, Avanos or Uçhisar,
that includes an Underground City,
the hill town of Güzelyurt,
a hike to see the Byzantine cave
chapels in the Ihlara
Valley, and the medieval Ağzıkarahan
Seljuk
Turkish caravanserai.
Here's
how.
When
visiting a Cappadocian Underground
City,
try to get to the cave entrance right
when it opens (usually 09:00 am)
so as to avoid the bus-tour crowds that
appear by mid-morning.
These troglodyte
cave-cities were excavated
as early as Hittite times,
and expanded over the centuries
as various marauding armies traversed Central
Anatolia in search of captives
and plunder.
Stout rolling-stone
doors prevented invaders from
entering. Deep wells provided
water, and tall chimneys ventilation.
Wine presses, oil storage, livestock
pens, cooking-places and even elaborate churches were
carved out of the rock so that
the inhabitants could live for
weeks or months underground until
it was safe to emerge and return
to their ground-level villages.
Cappadocia has
dozens of underground cities, but
the largest and most elaborate (and
frequently visited) are at Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu,
20 km (12 miles) and 30 km (19 miles)
south of Nevşehir respectively
(map).
Distances & Travel Times (to
Kaymakli)
Aksaray:135
km (84 miles) W, 2.5 hours
Avanos: 27
km (17 miles) NE, 50 minutes
Göreme:20
km (12 miles) N, 25 minutes
Güzelyurt:76
km (47 miles) W, 1.5 hours
Ihlara:90
km (56 miles) W, 1.75 hours
Nevşehir:10
km (6 miles) N, 12 minutes
Niğde:67
km (42 miles) S, 1.25 hours
Ürgüp: 33
km (21 miles) NE, 40 minutes
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