Take me down, to the underground city!

The next place on our tourist list was the Derinkuyu underground city. In a handful of places throughout Cappodocia, residents had carved impressive tunnels and rooms underground, all connected up like miniature cities. Their purpose was to serve as a temporary hiding place during the periodic invasions from outsiders. Indeed, there was even a beacon system that could send news of incoming armies, to give time for all the residents to grab their things and head underground.

Derinkuyu itself has over 8 floors underground and full complement of civic buildings in addition to residences.

We descended into this abandoned town. The hallways were not that nice, often very short (three to four feet tall) and sometimes quite dark. But the rooms really did open up. We saw houses, stables, churches, a winery, and other assorted buildings.

One impressive part was the locking system they had. Every so often on a staircase, there would be a large marble wheel that could be rolled over the passage way, sealing it off from foreigners that wished to do them harm.

There were many dark tunnels to explore. One was a loop, and I unexpectedly ran into my sister!

We also found the school, and the hopefully poorly named "student cells."

Finally, eight floors down, we found the end of the line, an unceremonious small room likely used for storage (and maybe used for graves).

What a cool place to explore, literally!