Kaymaklı Underground City

Kaymaklı lies about 20 kilometres from Nevşehir. Its underground city has eight levels, the first of which dates to an early period. Tradition traces its beginnings back to 3000 BC and to Hittite times; later, in the Roman and Byzantine eras, more space was carved out until the site became a true underground city. Cappadocia holds an estimated 150 to 200 such settlements, dug into soft tuff mainly to keep their people safe.

Inside, rooms and halls are linked by narrow passages, and the layout has everything a group needed to survive for a time: wine stores, water cellars, kitchens, food stores, ventilation shafts, wells and a church. Low, narrow galleries were meant to slow anyone who entered with bad intentions, and big rolling stones could be shut from the inside to seal the passage.

Today four levels are lit for visitors. Villagers in Kaymaklı, the ancient Enegüp, still use parts of the tunnels near their houses as cellars, storerooms and stables.