Man Discovers Entire Underground City After Knocking Down Basement Wall
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Man Discovers Entire Underground City After Knocking Down Basement Wall:
Most people who take a sledgehammer to one of their walls end up finding nothing more than some shoddy plumbing. But for one man in Turkey, a renovation attempt in 1963 led to the discovery of a lifetime. Knocking down a basement wall revealed a multi-layered underground city, which researchers are now understanding to have housed up to 20,000 people.
The man-whose name remains under wraps even after several decades-resided in the Turkish providence of Cappadocia. He's said to have been working on an interior home upgrade when he demolished the one barrier dividing his residence from that of people from as far back as the 8th or 7th centuries BCE. The hole in his wall opened up to a tunnel, which gave way to more tunnels, allowing archaeologists at the Turkish Department of Culture to inspect the newly-discovered city first hand.
Now referred to as Derinkuyu, the city is believed to have housed early Christians who fled from the Romans, plus Muslim Arabs seeking refuge from the Arab-Byzantine wars. Compared with other hideouts, Derinkuyu offered a decent level of security: Many people didn't know about the underground labyrinth at all, and if residents were found out, they could use the city's many intricate escape routes to avoid harm. They even used stone "doors" to block passageways, sealing themselves and their families inside with select livestock and other supplies until intruders gave up and left.
Certain features suggest that even non-refugees who lived in Derinkuyu resided there exclusively. Ventilation shafts, water channels, and wells as deep as 180 feet helped facilitate survival without requiring residents to venture above ground. Those who lived in Derinkuyu-temporarily or long-term-used torches to see in the city's perpetual darkness. Though much of Derinkuyu is made up of corridors, its total 172 square miles include many living quarters complete with bedrooms and kitchens, making for a relatively comfortable home.
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