INSIDE THE LARGEST ANCIENT UNDERGROUND CITY!!! KAYMAKLI - TURKEY

Good morning from Ankara again. I've decided to come back to Cappadocia to show you the largest, also known as the widest ancient subterranean settlement in Anatolia, the underground city of Kaymakli. Let's go! The city of Kaymakli is located 300 kilometers southeast from Ankara and only around 10 kilometers from the deepest underground city Derinkuyu, which we've already explored. You can find the link below. Located under the hill known as the Citadel of Kaymakli, the city was opened to tourists in 1964. There are 8 floors, but only 4 are open to visitors. These 4 floors feature 64 rooms. However, there are a lot more cavities, but they've never been counted, as they are collapsed. The top floor has 6 rooms, the second 28, the third 14 and there are 16 rooms on the fourth floor. It's believed that the city features around 100 tunnels and what really surprised me is that the current residents of the area still use parts of the tunnels as cellars, stables or simple storages. The design of Kaymakli appears to be even mazier than Derinkuyu's. Corridors and tunnels blend with chambers and, honestly, sometimes it's quite hard to find your location. You may often see several floors at once and, additionally, this peculiar orange lighting is underlying the surreality of the place. There are so many tunnels, so many paths, I don't know honestly where to go. Measurements and shapes of chambers don't have any particular pattern. 28 rooms are rectangular, but the rest are either circular, elliptical or polygonal. The largest chamber is 35.3 square meters, whereas the area of the smallest room is 2.4 square meters. According to researchers, large quantities of storage rooms indicate economic stability and support the hypothesis that at the city's peak, around 3,500 people inhabited this subterranean settlement. In antiquity, the city was called Enegup and even though it's suspected that the Hittites were the first to dig this structure, according to the Turkish Department of Culture, the city might have been firstly built much, much later, in the 8th or 7th century BCE, by the group of the Indo-European people, the Phrygians. It's likely that along with other Indo-European tribes, Phrygians filled the political vacuum after the collapse of the Hittite Empire. According to Herodotus, they came from the southern Balkans and initially called themselves bridges, which possibly do rise from high mountains, as before relocating to Anatolia, they were occupying lands near ancient Mount Berymion, today Vermio Mountains, it's a mountain range in the northern Greece. Two main settlements of Phrygians were in Dacelium, near Hellespont, today Dardanelles, and in Gordium, around 80 kilometers southwest from Ankara. The latter became a real kingdom conducting foreign affairs with Delphi in the west and Assyria in the east. Moreover, the fertile land and skills of metalworkers and potters made Phrygia flourish. One of the most famous Phrygian characters was King Midas, who according to a Greek legend turned everything he touched into gold, but actually there were at least three Phrygian royals bearing this name. One of them is believed to be a founder of Ankara in the 2nd millennium BC. Another committed suicide after losing Gordium to Cimmerians around the 7th century BC. And the last one accidentally killed his brother and fled to Lydia in the 6th century BC. Vertical ventilation shafts are quite puzzling. They are so narrow that I can't imagine how they were so meticulously carved, as there's no way that someone would fit into it. And this is actually one of many arguments for alternative theories about lost ancient high technology, according to which these subterranean tunnels can be older by up to thousands of years. In the 7th century BC the Cimmerians conquered Phrygia and the region was successively ruled by the Lydians, Persians, Seleucid and obviously Roman Empire. Some tunnels are still filled with earth and debris. Even though today we perceive the city as chaotic, there's a clear division. The first floor contains mainly stables, the second church, the third floor however is perceived as the most important one, featuring multiple wineries, kitchens and storage places, along with a block of underside, which is believed to be a melting pot for copper. 57 holes were carved on the surface and into each one the copper ore, around 10 centimeters long, would be put and hammered with a hard piece of rock. Probably on the third floor a nine kilometer long tunnel is located, connecting this settlement with the underground city of Derinkuyu and is approximately two meters high and only two meters wide. How claustrophobic! As well as Derinkuyu, Kaymakli also features doors made of large round boulders up to 1.5 meters in diameter and weighing about 500 kilos, which served as barricades and could lock each level independently. We're now on the second floor in the church, with a single nave and two apses and a small altar in front of them. In the beginning of the 1st century AD, Christians sought refuge from Roman persecution in this wild inaccessible Cappadocian environment, which provided a perfect hideout. One group came all the way from Jerusalem to Derinkuyu. After finding subterranean settlements, they started to expand them, adding churches, chapels, monasteries. These people were part of a culture often referred to as Cappadocian Greek. Since the beginning of the 1st millennium, the subterranean cities protected Greek Orthodox from enemies and natural disasters until the 20th century. In comparison to Derinkuyu, Kaymakli is even better prepared for visitors. However, I managed to find a tunnel off the main route, and I couldn't help it but checked where it leads. First of all, it was extremely small and narrow, and I had to crawl. After some time, I didn't find myself in a chamber like in Derinkuyu, but the tunnel appeared to be endless, and I decided to go back having in mind extremely dangerous vertical shafts. It's really quite challenging, you can believe me. Then I found another mysterious tunnel, but this time it was blocked with huge boulders, and I couldn't squeeze through them. I've heard that some of the tunnels might be even 10 kilometers long, and knowing you can get stuck in such a narrow space is just terrifying, especially as it is in Turkey. I'm not controlled or followed by anyone, so no, I'm not recommending this kind of exploration to anyone, as it might get really dangerous. It's quite cold in here. This volcanic rock is incredibly soft, it literally crumbles under the fingers. Nevertheless, the tool marks are still exquisitely preserved everywhere. We still don't know how many underground settlements this magical region features, as there have still been new discoveries made. Apart from Kaymakli and Derinkuyu, only a few more underground settlements are open for tourists, but I highly recommend visiting these sites, as being inside of such an extraordinary structure is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thank you for watching! If you liked this episode, you will also enjoy my playlists from Greece and Egypt, links down below. I'm still exploring ancient sites, so if you want to stay up to date with new episodes, please subscribe to my channel. And see you on another entirely different ancient site!