Derinkuyu Underground City
Derinkuyu Turkey, is an ancient multi-level underground city. The depth is approximately 279 ft below ground. There is evidence of at least 8 levels. The steps and passage ways are very tight, narrow and steep. Occasionally there is a large stone that can be rolled into the passage way to completely close it off.
At times being this far under ground was unsettling - and I am not claustrophobic.
It is large enough to have sheltered as many as 20,000 people together with their livestock and food.
The caves were carved initially in the soft volcanic rock of the Cappadocia region by the Phrygians in the 8th–7th centuries BC. Later Christians expanded the caverns to deep multiple-level structures adding chapels and Greek inscriptions. There is an area clearly defined as a cross that is a large chapel.
