Underground City Raid

Lore & Background

The historical Derinkuyu underground city in Nevşehir Province, Turkey. It was carved mostly into tuff, a rock formed from compacted volcanic ash. The city could be closed from the inside with large rolling stone doors, and each floor could be closed off separately. It had amenities such as wine and oil presses, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, and chapels. A spacious room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling on the second floor is reported to have been used as a religious school. The city was connected to another underground city, Kaymakli, through 8–9 km of tunnels. It was significantly enlarged during the Arab–Byzantine wars from roughly 780 to 1180, when it sheltered local Christians from Umayyad and later Abbasid raider armies. The site's defensive design permitted concealment, isolation of sections, internal movement, and even organized counterattacks. It was likely during this period that Derinkuyu's population came closest to its peak capacity of around 20,000 people.

In Their Own Story

The source does not describe any story involving a character named Carl or any raid. It recounts historical events: In 1963, the city was rediscovered after a resident, while renovating his home, knocked through a basement wall and found a mysterious room behind it. Further digging revealed an access to the tunnel network. More than 600 separate tunnel entrances to the complex have since been discovered, some concealed under the basements of private houses in the above town. In 1923, the Christian inhabitants of the region were expelled from Turkey and moved to Greece in the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, whereupon the underground city was abandoned.

Reader's Guide

It describes the architecture and history of the Derinkuyu underground city. The city had a large amount of vertical ventilation shafts, divided into smaller air vents linking living quarters and other individual rooms, to wider central shafts. A 55-metre shaft appears to have been used as a well, providing water to both the villagers above and those in hiding. The main central shaft measures roughly 3 m by 2.8 m and connects to several levels, with openings never overlapping one another, in a layout that appears deliberately engineered to maximise airflow. The city could accommodate up to 20,000 people and had kitchens equipped with ovens called 'Tandoor', still used in the villages of Cappadocia today.

Did You Know?

• Derinkuyu extends to a depth of approximately 85 metres (280 ft).
• The city could shelter as many as 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores.
• It was connected to another underground city, Kaymakli, through 8–9 km (5.0–5.6 mi) of tunnels.
• A 55-metre (180 ft) vertical shaft appears to have been used as a well.
• The city was rediscovered in 1963 after a resident knocked through a basement wall and found a mysterious room.