Kaymakli: Underground Cities of Cappadocia

The underground cities of Cappadocia, like Kaymakli are one of the best things to see in Cappdocia with kids and a must do when traveling to Turkey.

While there are known to be 150-200 underground settlements in Cappadocia of varying sizes of settlement, not all have been discovered. The ones that tourists mostly go to were the ones large enough to accommodate over 30,000 people thus worth visiting. Two of the most famous ones are Derinkuyu and Kaymakli. While Derinkuyu goes vertically much deeper, Kaymakli is spread horizontally. Although, currently only 4 floors are open to the public, the city was built much deeper going upto 40mtrs.

Among the underground cities of Cappadocia, we chose Kaymakli for the following reasons: One of the largest underground city known so far, Wider and spread horizontally so easier to see with kids and closer from Goreme vs Derinkuyu.

View from a hot air balloon ride is by far the best thing to see in Cappadocia with kids and these underground cities come a close second due to the sheer uniqueness of these.

History and Significance:

The construction of these underground cities dates back to 5th – 7th Century AD when this ancient city was known as Enegup.

The underground cities of Cappadocia were subterranean settlements used as temporary hiding places for the local population from frequent raids. The cities were connected with each other by means of hidden and secret passages.

How to reach:

There are abundant tour operators you can book a tour with even after landing in Cappadocia. The main market in Goreme has a lot of them. In case you are traveling by yourself, it is around 45mins of driving distance with barely any traffic on the roads. For more information on internal travel within Turkey in general and Cappadocia in particular, you can take a look at this post.

Opening Hours:

8am to 7pm

What to see:

• Hierarchy

Even within these underground cities that were used mostly as temporary shelters there was a class system being followed where the rich or the higher ups in the society had larger rooms, various amenities while for those lower down in the hierarchy the room sizes became progressively smaller with smaller cellar and kitchen

• Evolved thinking in city planning

Stables were on ground floor with wineries and kitchens just below (or the upper floors than the residential areas). This was because, kitchen and wineries being communal places, required a lot of material movement (grains, barley, meats and grapes) for all the residents. Residential quarters followed these on the lower floors.

There full-fledged cities also had ventilation shafts and wells. These people were careful not to take the wells all the way to the ground floor so that enemies could not poison the water. Ventilation shafts were a critical element for air circulation in these underground settlements.

This interesting history and phenomenal city planning of yesteryears make it one of the best things to see in Cappadocia with kids.

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• Vessels, Tools and Mechanisms used in these settlements
  • Communication Holes: Around 10-15cm in diameter were carved between different levels so that people did not have to travel from one floor to the other to communicate with people on the other floors and these were especially useful for alerting those on the lower levels of the potential and imminent threat
  • Tandir: Special ovens called Tandir can be found in many of the kitchens in these cities and even in some of the remote villages of Cappadocia today
  • Cellar and Wineries: Holes made in the ground served as places of storage. It being underground also kept the wines cold.
  • Millstone: A large heavy rock along with a dug up area in the ground served as a sort of gristmill and mortar and pestle
  • Doors: Large circular discs of heavy rocks worked as doors in these cities.
  • Storage Area: The research suggests that these storage areas were used to store earthen ware thus suggesting economic stability of the people who used these cities
  • Church: Presence of a church suggests religious people living in societies

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Things to note:

• Guides: Do not go without a guide as you will miss on noticing most of the noteworthy things and not know their significance even if you do see them.
  They typically charge 90-100TL in cash so make sure you have local currency with you. Bargaining works everywhere in Turkey and guides are no exception. Also, ensure you get a guide who is comfortable in the language of your choice.
• Not disability and stroller friendly
• These cities are not very Tall (read 6ft and above) or Heavily built physique friendly as there are a few very narrow passages and tunnels
• Since these are subterranean settlements, you may want to reconsider if the kids are particularly not ok with closed and restricted spaces. Although our kids were absolutely all right as once we were inside it did not feel all that closed and constricted.

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