Underground Cities

Certainly the most interesting features of the Cappadocia area are the underground cities founded within.

A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
Aristotle

TextOne of the characteristics of Cappadocia is having plenty of underground cities. It's known that there are more than a hundred of underground settlements in the region and many of them are not open for visits. The underground cities, which are guessed to be used since the Bronze Age, used to be a settlement mostly in Byzantine period, doubtless. In this period, increasing invasions forced local residents to build underground cities for protection and religious purposes.

link(www.cappadociaturkey.net...



Until now even that have been determined about 40 underground cities just six of these have been opened for visit. Nobody can know how many underground cities there are in the Cappadocia area. Some say that there is one for every village and settlement in the region but certainly not all of the sites can be described as cities

www.cappadociaturkey.net...



“When you look at a city, it's like reading the hopes, aspirations and pride of everyone who built it.

TextGöreme which have the old names of Korama, Matiana and Maccan is 10 km far away from the center of Nevsehir province. The valley created from volcanic rocks is famous with the chimney rocks resulting from the erosion made by the natural factors to these rocks and with the historical richness. It has been an important religious place together with the intensive emigration of the first Christians escaping from the pressure of the Roman soldiers. The population escaped from the pressures has made many abbeys, churches and houses in the volcanic rocks from the valley where they were able to hidden easily. In our days in Goreme are found Elmali Church, Saint Barbara Church, Carikli Church, Tokali Church and Hidden Church and all of these are Goreme Open Air Museums. In the churches there are scenes from the life of Jesus, descriptions of the saints who written the Bible and pictures of Saint Barbara and Saint Georgius.

link(www.cappadociaturkey.net...

source(www.cappadociaturkey.net...

TextDerinkuyu Derinkuyu Underground City Derinkuyu is situated on Nevsehir-Nigde roadway at 30 km in south region of Nevsehir. The history of the district of Derinkuyu named as Melagobia (Malakopi) which was meaning in the period of Eti the hard living is very old. In the district there are many underground cities and churches. As all of the underground cities from region of Cappadoccia it was the first place where the Christians have hidden. It has been used as hiding and refuge place at the time of wars occurred in the zone in the different periods of the history. The Derinkuyu Underground City with seven floors and depth of 85 mt has the dimensions of a city able to shelter thousands of persons. Inside there are found food stores, kitchens, stalls, churches, wine production

source(www.cappadociaturkey.net...

TextOrtahisar Ortahisar Ortahisar is situated on Nevsehir Urgup roadway far with 6 km from Ürgüp. Its most pronounced structure is the Castle of Ortahisar situated at a 86 m height cave in the period of Eti. The castle has been used strategically and for accommodation. At the outskirts of the castle there are available the samples of the civil architecture characteristic to Cappadocia. Furthermore in the stores of the rocks cave in almost the entire valley there are stored the agricultural products grown in the zone. It is an attractive town with its natural beauty and historical features. The valley contending the Kavak, Ibrahim Pasa and Ortahisar regions is reaching to the Valley of Damsa Rivers. The places near to the Damsa River of this valley are named Üzengi River. It is a place with natural features as mineral water. In the middle of Ortahisar there is a castle as a huge chimney rock. The foreign peoples also call this castle as Chateau. The inside parts are caved. It has got the rooms and saloons. Moreover around the town there are many churches. In Ortahisar the housed are raise step by step to the castle. The natural beauties, the old historic structures and the interesting citrus gardens near to the Göreme rock stones provide that the tourist to be attracted here. In the valley of Ortahisar there are very interesting abbeys and churches. These are Sarica Church, Cambazli Church, Tavsanli Church, Balkan Rive Churches, Hallac River Abbey. The Ethnography Museum where the life of Cappadocia is described has been opened at Ortahisar.

link(www.cappadociaturkey.net...

source(www.cappadociaturkey.net...


“A city is the pulsating product of the human hand and mind, reflecting man's history, his struggle for freedom, creativity, genius-and his selfishness and errors.

Somehow I think more of these underground cities have been found the world over than have ever come to light. And I'm sure even more are yet to be found.

In this period, increasing invasions forced local residents to build underground cities for protection and religious purposes.

This has always seemed like a canned answer to me. I just think there's more to it than that.

reply to post by Klassified
The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa in Alexandria, Egypt. They are the treasure of the netherworld, an underground city for the dead, fusion of three great civilizations of the ancient world. They are a superior subways technology about 2000 years ago.

The Kom el Shoqafa Catacombs may not be famous or visible as the Great pyramids but they seemed to be equally astonishing experiment for the tourists to take in Egypt. It’s totally different tourist place than the others in Alexandria. No wonders as they are listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World.

Originally posted by Klassified
Somehow I think more of these underground cities have been found the world over than have ever come to light. And I'm sure even more are yet to be found.

In this period, increasing invasions forced local residents to build underground cities for protection and religious purposes.

This has always seemed like a canned answer to me. I just think there's more to it than that.

I couldn't agree with you more! There's definitely more to it than that.

I seem to remember a Hopi indian story where their ancestors had to live underground for generations here in the U.S.A.. If I remember it correctly, it wasn't until there became a division between the people who had 1 heart and those who had 2 hearts, that those with 1 heart returned to the surface. At least that's the way I remember it.

I also remember reading about some huge underground manmade structure found in a section of the Grand Canyon, (on Federal land with restricted access) where it's reported that they even found artifacts of Asian origin. I remember reading about it having numerous rooms connected by ventilations shafts, tunnels, etc. and that the overall size of the complex was yet to be determined.

If they did this all over the world just to keep themselves from being eaten by the animals, maybe man did exist right along with dinosaurs, who knows could have been dragons and flying monkeys too. I mean, there must have been some bad assed animals running around to cause this type of a global reaction.

I'm more inclined to believe there may have been other reasons for living underground at the time.

To the OP, S&F for an interesting find.

reply to post by Flatfish
Evidence of a lost civilization hidden somewhere in the Canyon.

A network of tunnels, high above the Colorado River. As they explored the intricate network of caverns, they found a treasure trove of artifacts, ancient statues and even mummies. What was truly mindblowing was that these artefacts appeared to be Buddhist or Egyptian in origin.

They were running and hiding scared by the 1%

reply to post by Flatfish


This is just one link among many. Some creative google searches will turn up a lot.
www.philipcoppens.com...

Mainstream archaeology has made it very clear this is bunk from their perspective. And our very own resident archaeologist "Byrd" agrees with them. And I'm not saying she or they are wrong. But I suspect there is more to the story by far.

As to reasons for living underground, could be drastic climate changes, could be memories of cataclysms in their recent past. I just know the canned answers from the mainstream don't do it for me.

“A city has values as well as slums, excitement as well as conflict a personality that has not yet been obliterated by its highways and gas stations.”

reply to post by diamondsmith


I love the cappadocia underground cities, they are beautifully crafted and are thousands of years old and a part of our history that has been forgotten and lost. Good post!

Fascinating Topic and as many have already stated - there are many more that are kept hidden for whatever reason.
Thanks for sharing S & F worth every word.

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
reply to post by diamondsmith

 

I love the cappadocia underground cities, they are beautifully crafted and are thousands of years old and a part of our history that has been forgotten and lost. Good post!

I want to visit those places some day!