A man accidentally found an ancient underground city behind the wall of his basement: it is more than 2000 years old

A Turkish homeowner chasing his chickens, who had escaped into a basement hole during renovations, stumbled upon an abandoned underground city that once housed some 20 people. The edition told in more detail New York Post.

Photo: IStock

In an attempt to catch a runaway poultry, in the 1960s a man tore down a wall and opened a dark tunnel leading to the ancient city of Elenguba, known today as Derinkuyu.

Located more than 80 meters below the Central Anatolian region of Cappadocia, it is the world's largest excavated underground city and is believed to connect over 200 smaller individual underground cities discovered in recent decades.

Inside the underground city, whose entrances connect to more than 600 private homes in today's Cappadocia above-ground region, researchers have uncovered 18 levels of tunnels containing residences, dry food storage, stables, schools, wineries and even a chapel.

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The city was equipped with a ventilation system that supplied its inhabitants with fresh air and water.

“Life underground must have been very difficult,” said a guide named Suleman. “Residents relieved themselves in sealed clay jugs, lived by torchlight and disposed of corpses in designated areas.”

Photo: IStock

The exact date of construction of the impressive city remains disputed, but ancient writings dating back to 370 BC indicate that Derinkuyu was already in existence at this time.

The city was probably originally designed to store goods, but then it was used as an escape bunker from foreign invaders - dimly lit corridors were deliberately built narrow and low so that intruders stooped and entered in one row.

The doors connecting each level were blocked by half-ton boulders that could only be moved from the inside. There was a small hole in the doorway, allowing the inhabitants to pierce violators with a spear.

While it remains a mystery who the architects were, researchers believe that the Hittites — a Bronze Age Anatolian people — “may have excavated the first few levels in the rock when they were attacked by the Phrygians around 1200 BC. e.". Mediterranean cave dwelling expert A. Bertini wrote about this in his 2010 essay on regional cave architecture.

Photo: IStock

It is believed that the Phrygian invaders, the Indo-European empire that ruled Anatolia for 600 years, built most of the city centuries before Derinkuyu changed hands several more times, including between Persians, Christians and Cappadocian Greeks.

The city probably reached its peak population of 20 during the 000th century Islamic raids on the Christian Byzantine Empire.

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After 2000 years of use, Derinkuyu finally left in 1923 the Cappadocian Greeks, who were defeated in the Greco-Turkish war and fled to Greece.

A century later, the ancient city is open to visitors who want to experience the underground life of Derinkuyu, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.

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