All language subtitles for GIZEMLI TARIH_BLM03_DERINKUYU_ ENG _SUB_V1

An unusual underground city has
been discovered in Cappadocia.

With its eerie tunnels…

…rock-cut chambers…

…and labyrinth-like passages…

…it’s a mysterious shelter…

…that has been hidden
underground for centuries.

It was 85 meters below ground
and large enough…

…for thousands of people
to live in at the same time.

The borders of its kilometers-long
passages have yet to be discovered.

So, who built this mysterious
civilization underground…

…in the very center of
Anatolia, how and why?

What secrets does the Derinkuyu
underground city keep?

It all started with skillful hands
patiently digging the ground.

A bronze age society...

...built an underground
city full of secrets.

Derinkuyu.

When and by whom it was made
is still controversial.

But even the part of it that has been
brought to light…

…is enough to puzzle you.

Professor Hikmet Kýrýk…

…has been studying society
and history for 30 years…

…and now wants to learn
the true story…

…of the world's most mysterious
underground city.

Derinkuyu is one of the
largest and oldest…

…underground cities in the world.

Its true size is still unknown.

In this underground city,
which is thought to be…

…almost as old as writing…

…people enough to fill
a stadium lived together in it.

So, what secrets does this mysterious
underground city…

…hold about the history
of civilization?

And who built this city and how?

The answer to all these questions
lies here in Cappadocia.

Cappadocia, Türkiye.

The ancient lands where chimney
rocks cover the silhouette…

…and the stone finds its soul.

Today, Cappadocia covers a wide
geography…

…with Nevþehir as its center.

The path of all the oldest known
Anatolian civilizations…

…passed through these lands and left
many traces behind them.

But they weren’t all on the ground.

More than thirty underground
cities were built in the region.

One of them was quite different
from the others.

Much larger and much more mysterious.

And now its true story is about
to come to light.

-Hello.
-Hello, Welcome to Derinkuyu…

…Underground City.
-Thank you.

-Let's go.
-Okay, let’s go.

It’s much more impressive
than I expected.

Half-man-sized crossovers.

Interconnected rooms.

And dark tunnels.

All were carved into stone…

…and not all of them have still been
discovered.

Derinkuyu Underground City is
Türkiye's largest underground city.

It was discovered by chance
by villagers in 1963.

It was opened to visitors in 1965.

Currently, the area that can be
visited consists of eight floors.

However, it is said by researchers
that it can reach up to 12…

…or 20 floors, and the areas we can
currently visit…

…are not even ten percent.

So this is the tip of
the iceberg then.

Derinkuyu underground city was
built as 13 floors underground…

…on an area covering seven
kilometers on the surface.

To date, eight floors of 55
meters have been discovered.

Its total size is thought to be four
and a half square kilometers.

That is the size of 1100
football fields.

We shouldn’t think of the floors
in the Underground City…

…as the usual floor system
we know and understand.

The ranges can change, and these
floors are connected by tunnels.

The spaces that make up the living
spaces…

…are connected to each other with
short passages.

You can think of them as
a rock-carved room…

…and a small room next to it.

It has all the elements you can
see in a normal living space.

Who are the first architects of
Derinkuyu, Mr. Bora?

Who used the first pickax
in Derinkuyu?

It’s very difficult to give
a definite answer to this question.

However, according to research, it is
thought to date back to…

…the pre-Hittite period…

…dating back to approximately
1750 BC and 2000s.

According to classical theory,
the Hittites…

…were the oldest civilization to have
lived in Anatolia.

They built a gigantic bronze age
empire in the 1800s BC.

However, they were not the first
hosts of the Anatolian Peninsula.

Yasin Yýldýz knows who the owners of
Anatolia were 4000 years ago.

The founding civilization of Anatolia
is known as the Hittites.

But in the recent research,
we know that there was…

…a Hatti civilization in this region,
in Anatolia…

…and we know that Hattians ,
laid the foundations of Hattusha.

The Hattians had the power and the
social organization…

…to build cities, and they may have
laid the first foundations…

…for Derinkuyu.

But how can a civilization that
hasn’t found writing yet…

…build a huge underground city…

…whose borders are still
unexplored today?

The first clues to the answer to this
question…

…may lie in the region where
Derinkuyu was built.

Geologist Ýsmail Dinçer knows that
the first thing needed to build…

…an underground city 4000 years ago
was the right raw material.

Right now, we have rock samples
formed by three different…

…geological processes.

Here, we have a simple device.

The device produces ultrasonic sound.

Now, if we measure
the samples in order here…

…for example, this sample is…

…30.4 milliseconds, that is, it takes
around 30 milliseconds…

…for our voice to start here
and reach here.

Then we measure our
following example.

It goes a little faster in this…

…so we can consider it
to be more durable.

Let's measure this example.

It took a much longer time.

So, it took longer.

Therefore, its speed is lower,
its strength is less.

Because as you know, sound travels
slower in space.

So, this is the rock in which
Derinkuyu was drilled?

Yes.

This is an ignimbrite product of
volcanism in the area.

The most important feature
of this rock…

…is that it is soft and therefore
very easy to work.

Now test their easy workability
with a simple hand tool.

As you can see…

…it can be easily processed with a
hammer, it split into two.

This is exactly what the Hattians
realized…

…when they were building Derinkuyu
four thousand years ago.

The Hattian period was
the bronze age.

Metalworking was known in this age
and metal digging shovels…

…were used, and four
thousand years ago…

…these tools were used
to shape the rocks in the…

…volcanic nature of Cappadocia.

Thus, a worker in Derinkuyu…

…dug more than three cubic meters of
soil a day.

But raw materials
and the right tools…

…are only the beginning
of construction.

Carving soft rocks alone…

…isn’t enough to build a gigantic
underground city.

Those who built Derinkuyu also needed
advanced engineering.

So how much advanced engineering
is needed?

Only a civil engineer can
tell us this.

In classical engineering, we build
the building from the ground up.

However, when we want to build an
underground city like Derinkuyu…

…we need to use reverse engineering
methods.

In other words, we start from the
ground…

…and build downwards.

In such a case, two main problems
arise.

First, static problems,
meaning, balance problems.

In classical construction, when you
make a mistake on a floor…

…you have the chance to demolish that
floor and do it again.

But the mistake you make on one floor
while building…

…an underground city may cause the
whole system to collapse.

It’s just like playing jenga.

The builders of Derinkuyu solved this
problem as such.

As they went deeper, they increased
the remainder of the layers.

In other words, while the first
four floors were built…

…at 20 meters, the next four
floors were built at 30 meters.

The second problem was the removal of
the material…

…from the excavation, meaning,
excavations.

Today we do this work
with loaders and trucks.

But four thousand years ago…

…you could only do this
with manual effort.

Considering the size and depth of
Derinkuyu…

…approximately how much earth
is taken out?

When we look at the number of rooms
and the surface area…

…approximately 500 thousand tons of
material was obtained.

So, this means that the truck you see
behind me…

…has filled and emptied
25 thousand times.

-25 thousand?
-25 thousand.

The builders of Derinkuyu dug half a
million tons…

…of excavation from the ground.

In other words,
if we were to pile up the soil…

… extracted from Derinkuyu, it would
reach seven times the height…

…of the skyscraper behind me, and
they did it all with manual power.

This was one of the greatest
struggles of mankind…

…against the power of nature.

But it's not just people who
pass this test.

Even the smallest creatures of nature
can cooperate…

…to build gigantic structures in
proportion to their size…

…and there are surprising
similarities…

…between Derinkuyu and an anthill.

Ants are very interesting animals.

They have a great division of labor
and hierarchies.

They are also good engineers.

They build underground cities
for their colonies.

Just like Derinkuyu, anthills
are built layer by layer…

…under the ground and consist of
complex rooms…

…in asymmetrical design
along the corridors.

This is exactly what
the Hattians did.

Digging the ground with
cooperation and patience.

Presumably, the construction process…

…consisted of a leader, foremen, and
ordinary workers.

The workers were divided
into different departments…

…and each specialized
in their own field.

While the excavation team
worked on the ground…

…the excavation team worked along the
tunnel line.

The outside logistics team provided
support to the field team…

…and the whole process
was carried out…

…according to a predetermined plan.

The result was an extremely complex
and asymmetrical architecture.

Derinkuyu was one of the mega
projects of the ancient age…

…just like the pyramids.

But 20 thousand people worked on the
construction of the pyramids…

…and it had state power behind it.

So how much manpower is needed to
build an underground city…

…like Derinkuyu, and how did the
Hattians achieve this?

Archaeologist Mevlüt Coþkun…

…thinks the answer lies in
the size of the city.

This is the visible part,
only 10 percent of Derinkuyu.

In other words, Derinkuyu has
90 percent unopened parts.

Considering this,
if you had to do it all at once…

…it would take thousands of men.

In other words, you can’t
do this with a few people…

…or even hundreds of people,
you need 10-20 thousand people.

But a room on the second floor also
suggests a different possibility…

…regarding the construction process.

This is a missionary school.

When we look at it as a construction
technique…

…it’s a technique made in
the cradle vault arch system.

This is a technique that emerged 2000
years after the Hattians.

So, this means that the construction
in Derinkuyu…

…continued for thousands of years.

Yes, Derinkuyu wasn’t built
in one night.

Many civilizations passed through
here…

…and each civilization applied
their own techniques.

Building an underground city like
Derinkuyu was the first challenge.

Think about it, you go 28 floors
underground and…

…you spend your whole life there.

Humans can build like ants…

…but they can't live in cold
and humid conditions…

…and the Hattians didn't just
build the city.

At the same time, they
established a living space here.

The secrets of the world's most
mysterious underground city…

…in Cappadocia have been hidden
underground for thousands of years.

Even the unearthed part
of this gigantic ancient city…

…which has not yet been fully
discovered…

…is enough to puzzle the minds.

How did 30 thousand people...

...live in dark
tunnels and maze-like rooms?

Professor Hikmet Kýrýk…

…investigates the mystery of
Derinkuyu…

…and decides to trace the real life…

…in the thousands of years
old tunnels.

This is Derinkuyu's eighth and most
recently discovered floor.

It is 55 meters deep from
the surface…

…and no one has been able to go
deeper until today.

However, this shaft can give us an
idea of the true size of Derinkuyu.

30.2 meters.

So Derinkuyu is exactly 85 meters
deeper than the surface.

Many problems need to be solved for
thousands of people…

…to live together in a city that’s 85
meters underground…

…and only carved into the rock.

The first and foremost
is ventilation.

The first thing the Hattians
had to figure out was that…

…all the air on the surface would go
down through all floors…

…and be evenly distributed throughout
the rooms.

But how did they solve this?

It was determined in a test
study that approximately…

…10 to 30 thousand people lived
in the Derinkuyu underground city.

These people also had animals.

When we consider these, there is a
need for approximately…

…40 cubic meters of fresh air
per person, per hour.

When we consider 30 thousand people,
it’s a serious figure.

One million 200 hundred
thousand cubic meters.

It’s a very serious matter
to get this much air…

…into an eight-story structure.

When I make a calculation
accordingly…

…approximately 50 chimneys
are required.

When we look at the settlement in
Derinkuyu…

…they surprisingly built 52 shafts.

It's like we calculated together.

Surprisingly, the builders
of Derinkuyu…

…installed a ventilation system
exactly the size the city needed.

Right now, we’re in front of
Derinkuyu's…

…biggest underground shaft.

This ventilation shaft reaches
a depth of approximately 55 meters.

It provides air to all floors without
interruption.

It also has another feature.

Water was reached at 55 meters and
was also used as a water well.

So it’s both ventilation and
water well.

Very clever, very smart.

The famous water wells that
give the city its name…

…also form the ventilation system.

It works as a bidirectional
ventilation system…

…with holes drilled on each
floor along the shaft line.

But these shafts are not the city's
only connection to the surface.

We’re on the first and oldest floor
of Derinkuyu Underground City.

The area we’re in is the stable
part of the underground city.

In this section, which is closest
to the surface…

…we see the areas where livestock and
riding animals were kept.

In the places we see in other
underground cities…

…we see that the first floors are
usually reserved for barns.

Because the part closest to
the surface is the first floor.

So it’s the floor where animals can
easily enter and exit.

We’re in another part of
the underground city…

…that is connected to the surface.

This is the winery section.

We are in the section where
the grapes were crushed.

It’s known that the people
of Derinkuyu crushed grapes here…

…and the flowing waters were
stored in this small tank…

…and that the grapes were thrown here
through this opening.

So, the people of Derinkuyu never
lost contact with the surface.

Yes, they had a life outside, too.

We can think that they spend most of
the day outside.

It’s a definite fact that they
continued their farming…

…and animal husbandry activities.

Life in Derinkuyu wasn’t completely
isolated from the outside world.

The inhabitants continued to
outsource their food and logistics.

They probably spent a certain part of
their day…

…regularly working in the fields
and collecting fruit…

…in the plains of Cappadocia.

Because the dark and cold city
void of sunlight…

…isn’t enough on its own
to sustain human life.

These kitchens, ten meters below the
surface…

…offer interesting clues
to the life of the city.

The world's first tandoori system was
used in these kitchens…

…and chimneys were opened
to get rid of the smoke.

Right next to it,
are the supply rooms.

However, considering the total
population of the city…

…and the number of houses, there
wasn’t a kitchen…

…for every household in Derinkuyu.

In other words, the people of
Derinkuyu…

…cooked and ate their meals together.

But there was no such life on
the land in the same era.

In other words, when the Hattians
went underground…

…they lived as a commune.

Derinkuyu not only changed their
lifestyle…

…but also created innovative ideas.

The builders of Derinkuyu were able
to communicate through these holes…

…in the walls, between rooms and even
between floors.

They set up a kind of phone
line carved into the rock.

They also developed a permanent
lighting system…

…in these kilometers long corridors.

They poured linseed oil into the
cavities they dug and burned them.

So, they didn't have to walk
around with torches all the time.

It was almost like an ancient street
lighting system.

But that's not all.

The builders of Derinkuyu also
provided a solution…

…to a much more vital problem
of life in the city.

The correct adjustment of the
temperature balance…

…which was the most important problem
of all shelters.

In this underground city…

…the walls are at a constant
temperature of about 20 degrees.

This temperature is stabilized from
three meters below the ground…

…in both summer and winter.

Regardless of the outdoor
temperature…

…the temperature inside is fixed.

This is one of nature's miracles.

Derinkuyu has a natural thermal
insulation.

Volcanic rocks create a balance that
keeps the city warm…

…in winter and cool in summer.

All these details make this eerie
underground city…

…suitable for human life.

But Derinkuyu isn’t just a shelter
for those who live here.

It was also a house for them...

...in the eternal sleep of death.

This is the seventh floor
of Derinkuyu…

…exactly 50 meters below the ground.

The oxygen is decreasing.

This isn’t a suitable place for
those with shortness of breath.

There is a necropolis
at this deep point of the city.

I mean, the cemetery.

Just like the lives of the Derinkuyu
people…

…their graves didn’t see
the light of day either.

So Derinkuyu was also a city
of the dead.

According to Hittite mythology,
Kisar was the ruler…

…of the earth and life…

…while Lelvani ruled
the underworld and the dead.

In all mythologies the underworld
is the opposite of life…

…and is identified with death.

Because human beings have been
burying their dead underground…

…for tens of thousands of years.

However, four thousand years ago…

…life in Cappadocia was under the
ground just like in death.

And those who built Derinkuyu must’ve
had very strong reasons…

…for building such
a city underground.

Who knows, maybe the real mystery
starts here.

Not in how Derinkuyu was built,
but why.

Four thousand years ago, the world's
most mysterious…

…underground city was built in
Cappadocia.

With its kilometers of long tunnels
and maze-like structure…

…Derinkuyu hides many unanswered
questions.

Professor Hikmet Kýrýk is
investigating the true story…

…of this underground civilization…

…and now faces the most difficult
question of this mystery.

Why did thousands of people
live in this dark city?

When you look from the outside,
you see an ordinary valley.

The city is almost nonexistent.

It was almost impossible for
those who didn’t know…

…about its existence to think that
there was an underground city here.

And that’s how it happened.

No one realized that there was
a gigantic underground city…

…under this valley…

…until they excavated a peasant’s
house in 1963.

Because like other
underground cities…

…Derinkuyu was built on a simple
principle.

Secrecy.

Although Derinkuyu is spread over a
wide area above ground…

…all connections of the city with the
surface are skillfully hidden.

This is the main entrance to this
mysterious city.

The city is entered through a narrow
corridor of five meters.

After a few meters, daylight
completely disappears.

It reminds us of the famous
scene where Dante says…

…“Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
”

But ironically, Derinkuyu seems
to have been a source of hope…

…for those who took refuge here.

Those who entered here may have
found a chance of life…

…that they could not find
above ground.

The builders of Derinkuyu were
so successful in hiding the city…

…that it was discovered only 4000
years after its construction.

We’re in front of the bolt stone,
that is, the locked door.

It can be carved from the bedrock…

…and also can be made from different
materials.

Their weight ranges from about
200 kilos to 500 kilos.

Bolt stones are doors that can
only be opened and closed…

…from the inside.

Therefore, it has a system
that works in one direction.

The people who built the Derinkuyu
underground city…

…built these gates not only to hide…

…but also to keep others out.

One-way doors and corridors…

…where two people couldn’t
pass at the same time.

They serve one purpose.

Defense.

Derinkuyu was not just
designed for secrecy.

It was also planned as a shelter.

Each floor in Derinkuyu was built in
connection with each other.

So, you can't go to the third floor…

…without going through
the second floor.

Thus, it becomes possible to
gradually defend the city…

…in the face of a possible threat…

…leaving time for those below
to flee.

Bolt stones cut the connection
between floors.

Thus, each floor can survive
independently.

Just like the waterproof compartments
on the Titanic.

But this was not the only contingency
scenario…

…for those who built Derinkuyu.

They built escape tunnels
on different floors of the city.

This is a tunnel with 107 steps
on the sixth floor of the city.

One of the city's three great escape
points.

All this points to one thing.

Derinkuyu was a very secret and very
sheltered ancient shelter.

But what prompted a Bronze Age
society…

…to build such a gigantic sanctuary
four thousand years ago?

Why did the Hattians abandon their
above-ground colonial cities…

…and build a well-hidden sanctuary?

The use of an engineering mind far
ahead of its time…

…in the construction of Derinkuyu is
confusing.

That's why the construction of
Derinkuyu…

…has become a myth among the local
people.

Legends handed down from generation
to generation…

…suggest that people couldn’t
have built Derinkuyu…

…and therefore, believe it was
made by supernatural beings.

But the rumors aren’t just about its
construction.

Knowing that there was an underground
city in the region…

…before the discovery of Derinkuyu…

…the local people are familiar
with these legends.

We’re from Derinkuyu.

-Upstairs is our house.
-On top of this?

Above this is the same
underground city.

Our grandfather, even our
grandfather's grandfather…

…and grandmother lived here.

So, you knew this place before it was
discovered in 1963.

We knew, yes, our grandparents
used it.

My grandmother even has a wedding
dress room.

What did they use that for?

They used it as a depo, a room.
They lived there.

My grandmother used to say when she
stayed in the wedding dress room…

…she saw a “blonde girl” who
combed her hair.

I heard this from my mother, too.
They told us the stories.

My grandma used to tell us this.

And so did my mother.

So we were afraid,
we couldn't go down there.

Local people aren’t wrong
in believing these legends.

Because the first name recorded
in the distant past of the region…

…was Malakopea.

Derived from the Aramaic word malaka…

…the name means “The place of
angels”.

Legends have provocative
connections…

…to the location of the region.

In Zoroastrian mythology…

…the god Ahura Mazda asks the hero
Yima to build an underground city…

…to protect his people from the
approaching ice age.

According to mythology,
this city is large enough…

…to accommodate women, children and
two of each animal.

Just like Derinkuyu.

Stories of heroes who smuggled their
people underground…

…to hide from an approaching natural
disaster…

…especially from an ice age, are
common in Hittite mythology…

…and many of these mythologies belong
to the Cappadocia region.

Legends, in a way,
are fed by facts.

Or facts turn into legends over time.

But is there any truth behind these
narratives?

Can Derinkuyu's distant past date
back to the last ice age?

Contrary to popular belief…

…the ice age doesn’t cover a specific
period.

Our planet hade been
experiencing an ice age…

…for the last 2.5 million years,
and 100 thousand years ago…

…the last period known
as the last ice age began.

But this era ended
15 thousand years ago.

When we look at this possibility,
it would be extremely wrong…

…to say that the construction of the
Derinkuyu underground city…

…started in the ice age.

Do you think that it was excavated
earlier than Göbeklitepe?

That’s not possible.

How do we know it was made
in the Iron Age?

We can see from the traces of the
chisels on the wall…

…that these are the traces of the
chisels done during the Iron Age.

As a result, we can say that
it’s four thousand years old.

The enemy from which the builders of
Derinkuyu fled from…

…was not cold weather.

Perhaps they were hiding from a much
more dangerous enemy.

An invisible enemy who didn’t need to
break the gates…

…to enter the city.

Epidemics have created great problems
for people…

…in every period of history.

Even today, we have difficulties in
dealing with an epidemic…

…that exists in the world…

…though medical science has advanced
so much.

Under the conditions of that time…

…it may have caused mass deaths at
quite frequent intervals.

The plague, cholera,
and even leprosy.

So, this could be a quarantine zone?

If this had been a quarantine zone,
there would have been…

…fossils and the remains of these
diseases.

There have been no such findings yet.

But did these people escape from an
epidemic outside?

That’s a question mark.

Epidemics, earthquakes, natural
disasters.

All of them were mortal danger to the
Hattians.

But there was a more serious disaster
threatening Derinkuyu.

The city was only 60 kilometers away…

…from Anatolia's largest volcanic
mountain.

To the gigantic Erciyes Mountain
of four thousand meters.

Perhaps the Hattians tried to escape
from…

…a massive Volcano eruption.

They hid from the lava that erupted
from Erciyes and, like Pompeii…

…moved their city underground to save
it from destruction.

Was the Erciyes volcanic active at
the time Derinkuyu was built?

Yes. The last period...

...of this volcanism erupted...

...is 250 years BC.

Local people may have been scared
when the volcano erupted…

…but the lava of Erciyes volcanism...

...didn’t reach Derinkuyu.

But its ashes...

...may have gone even
further, than Derinkuyu.

Therefore, the Erciyes Mountain…

…didn’t pose a vital threat
in the region.

There remains only one reason for a
Bronze Age society…

…to build one of the largest
underground cities in the world.

The threat of a hostile colony.

An enemy dangerous enough to choose
to give up life above ground…

…and disappear in plain sight.

But who was the enemy of
the Anatolian colonies…

…four thousand years ago?

In 1800 BC, 3800 years ago,
the king of Kussara, Anitta…

…organized an expedition to the small
states…

…to enlarge the city.

King Anitta doesn’t do these
expeditions peacefully.

Unfortunately, he organizes
expeditions to these places…

…by using swords and even burning
them down…

…and pressures the small city
governments to leave.

In fact, there were Hattians among
the people sent from these places…

…as a result of this pressures.

But the Cappadocians had more reason
to be afraid.

King Anitta's city, Kussara, was 90
kilometers east of Derinkuyu.

And when Anitta began his expedition…

…he first turned to the West.

That is, towards Cappadocia.

Perhaps the Hattiabs, who did
not want to submit to Anitta rule…

…built Derinkuyu.

They hid here during the occupation
period…

…to avoid an impending massacre.

Perhaps the Anitta threat was already
over…

…when the Hattians began construction
on Derinkuyu.

But the Hittites' struggle for
dominance in Anatolia…

…continued for a few more centuries.

This period witnessed dozens of wars.

In fact, the Kadesh Agreement,
the first written treaty in history…

…was signed between the Hittites and
the Egyptians in 1269 BC.

In other words, the people’s
struggle for survival never ended.

Derinkuyu was used as a ready-made
shelter…

…not only during the Hatti period,
but also 2000 years later.

This time by a minority
fleeing absolute death.

The veil of mystery on the world's
most mysterious underground city…

…is being lifted.

But there is another part of
the story that hasn’t been told.

The last people living in Derinkuyu.

Professor Hikmet Kýrýk knows that to
solve the Derinkuyu mystery…

…he must also understand the story of
other people’s living here.

2000 years after the Hittites'
struggle for dominance in Anatolia…

…this time it was the first
Christians to escape the massacre.

But they were fleeing from an enemy…

…far more dangerous and powerful than
Anitta.

From Rome.

Christianity was a forbidden faith in
Rome…

…for the first two centuries.

Legionnaires massacred all Christians
they captured…

…in a wide geography from Wales to
Palestine…

…without separating women and
children.

In the 300 years before it was
liberated within the empire…

…Rome killed more than
two million Christians.

The early Christians were much
unluckier than the Hattians.

Because they had one of the most
powerful armies in history…

…after them and ruled a quarter
of the known world.

And they escaped from Mesopotamia in
the 200s and came here…

…to Cappadocia and took refuge in
Derinkuyu…

…which had been abandoned for
centuries.

Christians made many restorations and
changes in the city.

They strengthened the gates.

They applied a barrel vault system
to the ceilings of some rooms.

And they added the church and
missionary school to the city.

Unlike other refugee peoples…

…Christians directly reflected their
lifestyles on Derinkuyu.

They used this great assembly hall on
the seventh floor…

…of the city for sermons or services.

They continued all their religious
rituals…

…in their fugitive life here.

But life here inevitably affected the
system of thought and worship.

And many of these ascetic rituals…

…were first born during this fugitive
period.

The traces of the first Christians
aren’t limited to Derinkuyu.

There is also a large church and
baptismal stone…

…on the first floor of Kaymaklý…

…the second largest underground
city of the region.

With a capacity of five thousand
people…

…Kaymaklý was built centuries after
Derinkuyu by the Phrygians.

However,
just like Derinkuyu...

... its last inhabitants
were Christians.

The Cappadocia region…

…has been at the crossroads of
Anatolia for 2000 years.

For this reason, ninety percent
of the underground cities…

…in Anatolia are in this region
and it’s not a coincidence…

…that these underground cities were
built.

There are many underground cities
such as Derinkuyu Underground City…

…Kaymaklý Underground City,
Tatlarin and Mazi Underground Cities.

In fact, with future studies…

…there is a possibility that
this region will become…

…the capital of Anatolia's
underground civilizations.

There may be a much simpler reason
for the construction of Derinkuyu.

Could it be that the geological
structure of Cappadocia…

…and the thousands of years of
architectural tradition….

…in the region make it more
convenient to build underground?

These rocks are volcanic tuff.

Lava erupted by volcanoes millions of
years ago.

The architecture of the region…

…is an architecture created
by carving these rocks.

Our underground cities, Derinkuyu and
Kaymaklý…

…were built in the same way…

…and we were inspired by Derinkuyu
when we built this museum.

These rock-carved areas are a great
treat that nature offers us.

Such places are very
suitable for living.

They are cool in the summer and warm
in the winter.

That's why underground life is still
very common in Cappadocia…

…and that's why Derinkuyu
is in Cappadocia.

Aslý Özbey, who designed award-
winning architectures…

…carved into stone 4000 years after
Derinkuyu…

…thinks that the prevalence of
underground cities in the region…

…is based on more
pragmatic reasons.

Cappadocia is a place where people
have managed to live…

…in a reverse architectural method
for at least 3000 years.

Volcanic tuff is such a favorable
rock that it’s both porous…

…and provides thermal insulation very
well…

…and it’s very easy to
use and carve.

They managed to do everything from
forming the mangers of the barns…

…to shaping this place itself…

…by shaping the rock.

They sharpened this culture.

Something similar is happening in
Derinkuyu.

It’s not a permanent living space.

In other words, it’s an underground
city that people created…

…for temporary shelter in order to
protect themselves.

We are always curious this.

What happened if a woman was
pregnant...

...and had to give
birth at a time like this?

How did she give birth there?

How did she take care of that child?

But people managed to survive despite
all these difficulties.

Facts are far from legends.

Derinkuyu was the result of the
underground construction…

…tradition in Cappadocia.

The culture of building above ground
did not become widespread…

…in the region until
the 18th century.

In other words, for thousands
of years in Cappadocia…

…people chose to live underground and
in natural cavities.

Most of the local people prefer to
live in rock-cut houses even today.

Derinkuyu and other underground
cities…

…were the result of this widespread
tradition in the region…

…and these underground cities have
been a shelter…

…to dozens of different
civilizations over the centuries.

Derinkuyu has hosted those fleeing
oppression and persecution…

…for thousands of years.

Thousands of people developed a new
lifestyle in these dark corridors…

…where they took shelter with hope.

They built schools, houses, places of
worship here.

But they didn’t paint on any wall.

Even though man drew the first cave
painting…

…exactly 30 thousand years ago.

Because Derinkuyu was
a shelter for them.

It was obligatory.

Their only purpose here was to
survive…

…and the day they got a better chance
at life, they left.

Today, an unexplored world lies
underground in Cappadocia.

The mystery of Derinkuyu…

…is only the beginning of
this unknown world.

This is the entrance gate…

…to the mysterious underground
country of Anatolia.

This is the yet untold story
of civilization.

For me, Derinkuyu's mystery
is largely solved.

But some questions remain unanswered.

Will we ever be able to find the true
borders of Derinkuyu?

And will larger underground cities…

…come to light in the region one day?

Who knows, maybe with new
discoveries…

…everything we know about Derinkuyu
and the Anatolian underground…

…civilization will change…

…and we will understand the
underground world better.

But until that day…

…Derinkuyu will remain as the most
mysterious underground city…

…in the world.