

Vast Underground City Found in Turkey May Be One of the World’s Largest - Mz
http://www.history.com/news/vast-underground-city-found-in-turkey-may-be-one-of-the-worlds-largest

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jusben1369
20+ years ago I hitchhiked to Cappadocia in January with a light covering of
snow on the ground. I went to an underground city. It was hard to find as the
guard at the gate had left for lunch - no one was visiting at that time of
year. At 6'3" it was claustrophobic and intense. Many tunnels have old wheels
that they could roll across when intruders threatened. Above there are pots
that apparently held boiling oil that was then poured. Seeing no one else down
there I lived in fear of one of those wheels suddenly rolling across behind me
as absurd as that sounds. It was a combination of factors but that day stuck
in my mind forever. Hitchhiking out I got a lift in an oil truck with 2 guys
with no teeth and loud music that wailed as we drove on a sunny cold day chain
smoking in a cabin with rolled up windows all while laughing at our complete
inability to understand each other.

~~~
cgh
It was strange to read your comment as I did almost the same thing. I was
there in the fall/winter of 1993. I hitched around a bit as well, mostly on
tractors because of the whole windows rolled up while smoking thing.

I remember the motto of the PTT (the Turkish telephone monopoly) was "A phone
in every village!" They were nowhere near reaching that goal when I visited
and it was normal to feel pretty cut off if you went to villages even slightly
off the beaten track. It's an experience that's tougher to get nowadays, maybe
even impossible in anything short of total wilderness.

~~~
jusben1369
I lived there for about a year. During that year I traveled to Rome to see a
girl. She said "so the expression 'smoke like a Turk' is true!" Apparently it
was an Italian expression and I was living proof of it. (I quit cold 'turkey'
a couple of years later)

~~~
r3bl
That's an expression in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia too.

~~~
ovi256
That's an expression in French as well.

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acqq
"Found" doesn't mean it was "just found."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_underground_city](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_underground_city)

"It was opened to visitors in 1969 and to date, about half of the underground
city is accessible to tourists."

However there are new (big) areas discovered in 2014 -- referred to as "a new
underground city:"

[http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/new-details-emerge-in-
massi...](http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/new-details-emerge-in-massive-
ancient-underground-city-discovery-in-
cappadocia.aspx?pageID=238&nID=76257&NewsCatID=375)

"The underground city was discovered by a Turkey’s Housing Development
Administration (TOKİ) urban transformation project. Some 1,500 buildings
located in and around the Nevşehir fortress were demolished, and the
underground city was discovered when the earthmoving to construct new
buildings had begun.

Hasan Ünver, mayor of Nevşehir, said they were going to meet with the TOKİ
head and make a plan regarding the underground city. "

~~~
gokhan
It appears that the new one is not part of Derinkuyu, but a different site:

 _" Nevşehir Province is already home to Derinkuyu, an 18-story underground
city that was once capable of housing around 20,000 people, but if early size
estimates prove correct, the new site may be even bigger. Nevşehir mayor Hasan
Ünver told the Hurriyet Daily News that the complex was so vast that other
underground cities in the region would be the size of a “kitchen” if placed
within it."_

~~~
acqq
Yes, that's what I understood too. First reading here:

[http://www.marveltour.com.tr/haberler.asp?b=d&ID=11](http://www.marveltour.com.tr/haberler.asp?b=d&ID=11)

Then I've added the link to the hurriyetdailynews to my first post.

------
agumonkey
Pretty sophisticated digging :
[https://www.google.com/search?tbs=simg:CAESwwEawAELEKjU2AQaA...](https://www.google.com/search?tbs=simg:CAESwwEawAELEKjU2AQaAggCDAsQsIynCBpgCl4IAxIosg6IC8MLpBWgC_1ULxguHC7EOpRWnN9M-uDqOOKAqqjfmOPg35SGuKhowlv0BKOdTPG43IRPKHqepwgvkusfP6shT-0iFIQHPzHmgo3h4-ByPQmb6GoiBnR1PDAsQjq7-CBoKCggIARIE8Z7uLQwLEJ3twQkaMAoGCgRjYXZlCgsKCWxhdmEgdHViZQoLCglmb3JtYXRpb24KDAoKc3BlbGVvdGhlbQw&q=underground+city+found&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ZvsVVZTlE5LlaLvZgJgG&ved=0CC8Qsw4&biw=1021&bih=664#imgdii=_&imgrc=zInsCwnk9QPdZM%253A%3Bwq9yUIVDsfqFRM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.hiiraan.com%252Fimages%252Fgallery%252F2015116355567108400051846598778899.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.hiiraan.com%252Fnews4%252F2015%252FJan%252F97571%252Fvast_underground_city_found_in_turkey_may_be_one_of_the_world_s_largest.aspx%3B660%3B471)

ps: would make a lovely Indiana Jones set.

