Derinkuyu, Turkey

History

The oldest written information about underground structures is in the writings of Xenophon. In his Anabasis (circa 370 BC), he writes that the people living in Anatolia had excavated their houses underground, living well in accommodations large enough for the family, domestic animals, and supplies of stored food. The first two floors of the Derinkuyu underground city have been dated to this early period.

From Byzantine times (4th century AD) through 1923, Derinkuyu was known by its Cappadocian Greek inhabitants as Malakopea (Greek: Μαλακοπέα). The underground city was greatly expanded in the middle Byzantine period to serve as a refuge from the raids of the Umayyad Arab and Abbasid armies, during the Arab–Byzantine wars (780-1180). The city continued to be used as protection from the Mongolian incursions of Timur in the 14th century. After the region fell to the Ottomans the cities were used as refuges (Greek: καταφύγια). As late as the 20th century the town's inhabitants, called Cappadocian Greeks, were still using the underground chambers to escape periodic waves of Ottoman persecution.

Cambridge linguist Richard MacGillivray Dawkins] spent time in the towns from 1910-1911 while writing his book on Cappadocian Greek. He wrote:

From the History section of Derinkuyu on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.