Case file · Folklore / legend
Derinkuyu underground city found
In 1963 a resident of Derinkuyu in Cappadocia knocked through a wall during renovations and found a tunnel leading to a multi-level underground city deep enough for thousands of people.
1963 CE · 38.37, 34.73 · status: disputed
The account
The city reaches about 85 m with ventilation shafts, stables, chapels and rolling stone doors, and is linked by tunnel to Kaymaklı. Ancient-astronaut and 'pre-flood' writers say it was built to hide from sky threats; Xenophon (c. 400 BC) mentions underground homes in Anatolia. In 2014 another vast complex was found under Nevşehir.
The sceptical view
Archaeologists date the main expansion to the Byzantine period, when Christians sheltered from Arab raids; the soft volcanic tuff was easy to carve.