Beneath the fairy chimneys and the balloon-filled skies of Cappadocia lies another world: a network of underground cities carved into the soft volcanic rock, some of them large enough to have sheltered thousands of people. The most famous, Derinkuyu and Kaymakli, descend through multiple levels of tunnels, rooms, chapels and storerooms, and their history is one of the most fascinating in Anatolia. Who built them, when, and why? This is the complete history of Cappadocia’s underground cities, from their mysterious origins to their rediscovery in the modern age.
The Rock That Made It Possible
The history of the underground cities begins with the geology of Cappadocia. Millions of years ago, volcanic eruptions covered the region with layers of ash that hardened into tuff, a soft rock easy to carve but strong enough to hold its shape. The same rock that wind and water sculpted into fairy chimneys was also, for people, a perfect building material, one that could be cut with simple tools and that never needed mortar.
The tuff gave Cappadocia its unique potential: entire cities could be excavated, expanded and modified over centuries, and the rock itself would hold. Underground, the tuff also stayed cool in summer and warm in winter, a natural climate control that made the subterranean chambers genuinely habitable. The geology did not create the underground cities, but it made them possible, and it is the reason they exist nowhere else.
The First Excavators: An Ancient Puzzle
Who first carved chambers into the Cappadocian rock is a question that still has no certain answer. Some scholars argue that the earliest underground refuges date back thousands of years, to the Hittite era or even earlier, when the region was a troubled borderland of ancient empires. Others point to evidence from the Phrygian period, and some of the oldest finds recovered from the underground complexes have been connected with these early peoples.
What is certain is that the habit of carving the rock was ancient and continuous. Storage rooms, wine presses and shelters were dug into the tuff over many centuries, and each era added its own layer to the underground landscape. The underground cities as we know them were not built at one time by one people; they grew, like coral reefs of rock, through thousands of years of carving, reuse and expansion, each generation deepening the chambers its ancestors had begun and adapting them to new dangers and new needs.
The Persian and Roman Centuries
In the centuries of Persian rule and after, Cappadocia was a land of borderlands, and its inhabitants learned early that the landscape could hide them. The region’s caves and rock shelters offered refuge in times of trouble, and the underground complexes may already have served this purpose in antiquity. Written sources hint that the Cappadocians were known for their cave dwellings, and the rock-cut habit was part of regional identity.
Under the Roman empire, Cappadocia was a province and later a frontier zone facing Persia to the east. The threat of invasion was constant, and the underground refuges were perfectly suited to a population that wanted to survive the passage of armies. By late antiquity, the pattern was well established: when danger came, the people of Cappadocia could vanish into a world the invaders could not follow.
The Byzantine Age: The Great Expansion
The most important chapter in the history of the underground cities is the Byzantine period, when they reached their full size and complexity. From the 7th century onward, the Arab raids that swept Anatolia again and again sent the population of Cappadocia underground, and the existing refuges were expanded into vast complexes. Derinkuyu and Kaymakli, as we know them, are largely the work of these centuries.
Life underground was not a matter of hiding in a hole; it was a fully organised existence. The complexes include chapels, baptismal fonts, wine presses, stables, storerooms, kitchens and living quarters, arranged on multiple levels and connected by tunnels designed to be sealed with great circular stone doors. These were working communities, equipped for weeks of concealment, and their scale is the measure of the danger their builders faced.
The Stone Doors: Engineering for Survival
The most ingenious element of the underground cities is their defensive system, and its heart is the great stone door. These are massive discs of rock, shaped like millstones, that could be rolled across a tunnel entrance to seal it completely. A hole in each door allowed defenders to see, pass weapons through and, in some designs, pour things onto attackers while remaining safe behind the stone.
The doors were only part of a layered defence. The tunnels were narrow, forcing attackers into single file, and they wound in ways that made them hard to navigate. Ventilation shafts, which could be blocked or opened as needed, ran from the surface down through the levels. The design of the complexes, shaped over centuries by threat, is a complete manual of survival architecture.
The Christian Monasteries Underground
The underground world was not purely defensive; it was also spiritual. The Byzantine period saw Cappadocia become a great centre of monasticism, and the rock-cut tradition produced churches, chapels and monasteries both above and below ground. Some of the underground complexes contain chapels with carved crosses, altars and baptismal fonts, showing that worship was part of life in the refuge.
Monks and hermits had carved their cells into the Cappadocian rock for centuries, and the underground cities absorbed this tradition. When communities sheltered underground, their chapels went with them, and the faith that had grown in the caves of the region was practised in the deepest chambers of the earth. For the Byzantine Christians of Cappadocia, the rock was both fortress and church.
The Ottoman Centuries: Retreat and Memory
As the Arab raids faded and the Seljuk and Ottoman empires brought a different order to Anatolia, the need for vast underground refuges diminished. The underground cities were gradually abandoned, their levels sealed or forgotten, and life moved above ground. Some chambers were used for storage, wine making or shelter in passing, but the great complexes slept beneath the villages.
The memory of the underground world did not entirely disappear. Local people knew of the tunnels and used them for cellars and storerooms, and the tradition of carving the soft rock continued in the region’s architecture. But the scale and purpose of the ancient cities had passed out of living memory, and they awaited the discovery that would bring them back into the world.
Rediscovery in the 1960s
The modern history of the underground cities began almost by accident. In the early 1960s, a resident of Derinkuyu, while renovating his home, broke through a wall and discovered a passage leading down into what proved to be an enormous complex of rooms and tunnels. The discovery drew archaeologists, and excavation revealed a multi-level underground city of staggering scale, soon opened to visitors.
Derinkuyu was followed by the exploration of Kaymakli and other complexes across the region, and a picture emerged of a whole underground landscape beneath Cappadocia. The discoveries transformed the understanding of the region, adding a subterranean dimension to the fairy chimneys and the rock churches. What had been legend and rumour became one of the wonders of Turkish archaeology.
The Underground Cities Today
Today the underground cities are among Cappadocia’s greatest attractions, and they are protected as part of the region’s extraordinary heritage, which is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Visitors descend through narrow tunnels into the cool, dim world of Derinkuyu and Kaymakli, moving through chapels, kitchens and great circular stone doors, and the scale of the human effort is overwhelming.
The work of archaeology and conservation continues, and new chambers and connections are still being found. The underground cities are also a living puzzle: their full extent, their earliest origins and the details of their use are still being debated. What is beyond debate is the achievement itself, a world carved beneath a world, and the courage of the people who built it.
What the History Teaches Us
The history of the underground cities is a history of fear and faith, danger and ingenuity. They were built by people who needed to disappear, and they were perfected by people who needed to survive. The same soft rock that shaped the fairy chimneys was shaped by human hands into fortresses, churches and homes, and the result is one of the most remarkable expressions of the human instinct to endure.
For the visitor, the underground cities are a lesson in perspective. Descending into the cool darkness of Derinkuyu, past the stone doors and the ventilation shafts, you feel the weight of the rock and the urgency of the history above and around you, and you understand in your bones why generations chose to live beneath the ground. Cappadocia is famous for its sky, but its history runs just as deep beneath the ground, and the underground cities are its most extraordinary chapter.
Frequently asked questions
How old are Cappadocia’s underground cities?
The earliest underground chambers may date back to the Hittite or Phrygian periods, thousands of years ago, but the great expansion of complexes like Derinkuyu and Kaymakli came in the Byzantine period, from the 7th century onward, when Arab raids drove the population underground.
Why were the underground cities built?
They were built as refuges. The soft volcanic tuff of Cappadocia allowed whole communities to carve multi-level shelters with chapels, storerooms, stables and ventilation, sealed by great circular stone doors. They sheltered the population during invasions and raids, and they also served as centres of Christian worship.
How were the underground cities rediscovered?
The modern discovery came in the early 1960s, when a resident of Derinkuyu renovating his home broke through a wall into a vast underground complex. Excavation followed, and Kaymakli and other sites across the region were explored and opened to visitors, revealing a whole subterranean landscape.
All Over Information
The All Over Information editorial team researches and writes practical English-language guides to Turkey. Facts are checked against official and local sources before publication, prices are published as dated ranges rather than quotes, and guides are revised when things change. We accept no sponsored posts, paid placements or paid links.
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