Original subtitles

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.