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Xenophon,
in volume four of his 6th-century-B.C. account
"The Retreat of the Ten Thousand," tells of corning upon
an underground city in eastern Anatolia.The
entrance, he says, "was like the mouth of an unusual sort of
well that widened as it grew deeper. Animals
are kept in separate stables dug out of the earth
and reached by way of descending stairs. One finds
sheep, goats, cows, chickens and other domestic stock, together with
their young. All the animals
were fed on dry grass, while oil, wheat and wine
were stored in great jars. Those who became thirsty and wished to
imbibe could make use of hollow
reeds, various lengths of which stood beside the jars.
The barley wine was quite strong and had to be watered down before
drinking."
Lying
as it did across the migration routes of diverse tribes
and peoples, Anatolia was the scene of frequent
wars, whether the struggle was to establish a homeland,
build a dynasty, or simply survive the crossing
to some territory beyond. There were those who
came to trumpet the glory of empire, and those who
came merely to plunder and destroy.
But
what a roll-call! The Hittites, Assyrians, Hurrians,
Phrygians, Mushkies, Cimmerians, Lydians, Medes, Persians,
Macedonians, Ptolemies, Seleucids,
Galatians, Romans, Sassanids, Goths. The lirst
Christians fleeing Roman persecution: the endless
sectarian strife under Byzantium: the struggle over
the keeping or casting out of icons: the Arab invasions,
the Turkish conquest, the Mongols.
It
would be very difficult to say who first conceived of
hollowing out underground cities here, or who they
were defending themselves against. But seeing that such cities existed as early as the 6th century B.C.
they must go back a long way indeed. No doubt
they were used and then abandoned in cycles,
and gradually enlarged over the ages.
In
today's Cappadocia certain parts of the underground
cities at Kaymakh, Derinkuyu and Özkonak have
been cleaned and lit for the public, but none of them
has yet been completely explored. There are others, such as Mazikoy,
which will soon be open, while one hears of tunnels branching out
from ancient
citadels like Ürgüp, Ortahisar and Uçhisar -tunnels
which have collapsed at key points and which
thus guard their mystery.
The
Underground City at Derinkuyu, a product somehow
of greater care than the rest, is first broached
by way of a partly concealed entrance like the one at the Hittite capital, Hattusas. There are seven
levels, delving to a depth of seventy meters. Ventilation shafts
connecting the lowest floors with the
surface ensured a constant supply of fresh air, while wells within
the city guaranteed good drinking water even if an enemy should
poison all the wells above. |
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Kaymaklı
lies 18 km. south of Nevsehir, and is an extremely
complex underground city in seven layers comprising
rooms forgrain storage, the stabling of animals,aging
of wine, and every possible necessity of rural life. There are safe,
strong doors, chapellike places of worship,
and secret escape routes, with labyrinths and dead-end
corridors to give an intruder some very bad moments atthe least. |
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Derinkuyu
(literally, "Deep Well") is 29 km. from Nevsehir
on the road to Nigde. Seven levels reaching to a depth of 90 meters
have thus far been discovered
in this underground city, which in large measure
has been cleaned and electrically illuminated.
As
well as being ventilated by vertical air shafts, the levels
communicate via wells dug for water. Stone doors
in the shape of great wheels can be rolled across
the passageways to seal them off. The city, which branches out
horizontally in seemingly endless concatenations to cover some four
square kilometers,
was able to house a population of 20,000. Apart from storage rooms,
sleeping chambers and kitchens, there are large halls and what would
seem to be a cruciform church.
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