St. Mercurius Underground City

The St. Mercurius Underground City lies in the town of Saratlı, in Aksaray's Gülağaç district. It was used as a hiding place around the 250s AD, when Christianity was banned in the Roman Empire. The saint who gives it his name was a Cappadocian-born commander who lived in the mid-third century and was sent into exile after declaring his faith.

The complex has seven levels, of which three have been cleared and opened to visitors. You enter through a Seljuk-era caravanserai known locally as the "Develik", then move through corridors and rooms down to the lower floors. Underground cities usually contain modest chapels, but here the church spans a whole storey and recalls a small cathedral.

Excavations found about twenty graves of adults and children on the church floor, including a sarcophagus holding a man and a woman placed one above the other, and crosses carved in many forms. Storage jars turned up in the rooms, and a votive shrine known as "Develi Dam" still stands in one corner, next to a chamber with reliefs on its walls. The church seems to have been used most in the Eastern Roman period.