Kaymaklı Underground City

Kaymaklı is an ancient underground city in Cappadocia, 20 kilometres from Nevşehir and 25 kilometres from Göreme. Opened to visitors in 1964, it is one of the region’s largest cave complexes. The earliest levels may have been cut by the Hittites and were enlarged in Roman and Byzantine times. It remained inhabited into the 1920s, until local residents, including Cappadocian Greeks, left after the 1923 population exchange. Eight levels were carved into soft volcanic tuff and contained homes, schools, churches, storerooms, stables, kitchens, oil presses and wineries. Ventilation shafts, wells and reservoirs kept temperatures stable, while massive rolling stone doors protected entrances.

Cappadocian legends speak of dwarfs who built multi-level underground cities five thousand years ago and linked them by tunnels. Mysterious kings, perhaps incarnations of gods, were said to rule below ground, and some tales claim that people were born, lived and died without ever seeing the sun.