Kaymakli Underground City

Purpose• Temporary housing an hiding place during times of invasions and war• Could house 3,000 to 6,000 people• Nine stories or floors and carved right into the volcanic rock• Could store food, cook, sleep, daily life could go on, even the making

of wine

• This the widest underground city of Cappadocia region, it was carved out underneath a rock hill (Kaymakli Castle).• The first three floors were probably carved out by Hittites about 2000 B.C. After that; Assyrians, Lycians, Persians, Kimmerians settled

down in the region.• By the forth century B.C. the world famous greek commander Alexander the great occupied the region and become dominant. İn the year

of 1000 B.C. Cappadocia Kingdom was established. The kingdom made war against Mecodomans, Galatians, Romans and Pontuses.• The Romans occupied the region in the beginning of the 1st. Century B.C. Roman empire accepted Christian Religion in 376 A.D.• Before that romans didn’t have official religion, Early Christian suffered a lot from the romans, Pagans and arab invaders. There fore they

refugied in the Underground cities and they enlarged them.• Kaymakli Underground city was opened to the public in 1964. People of the town built their housed around the underground city and they

linked their houses to the underground city with the underground tunnels.• First floors of the underground city served as stables for the domestic animals, because upper floors were higher and convenient for this

use. On the second floor a lying down blocking stone, some living rooms, cemetery and Christian Church are available.• On the third floor too many storage rooms, mill stone to make flour, wineries to make wine and wine cellars to store wine. In some of the

wine cellars, some of the broken wine jugs can be seen.• On the forth floor, there are some more wineries and grape storages. A long gallery leads people to the communal kitchen, In the kitchen

too many food storage areas, ovens, a kind of hard stone which served multi functions, such as mortar, melting copper, barricade to block the passage to stop enemies (bazalt or andezit stone).

• In the underground city there are some main galleries and inside them same sub division were carved out make the city very complicated to make the enemies confused.

• There were also some wide areas where some of the important matters were talked and ceremonies were hold. The ventilation shaft is vertical and passes all floors down like on the elevator in an apartment. The depth of the ventilation shaft is about 120 meters in total.

• The underground city was originally carved out as eight floors (eight storied), how ever four floors are visitable. In war time about 5000 people refuged in.

Source: http://www.kaymakli.net/undercitikay.htm